A new research has proved that older people are more positive than their younger peers

The older the merrier?

A new research has proved that older people are more positive than their younger peers

If you always associated old age with grouchy behaviour, this new study can prove you wrong. Older adults display more positive emotions and are quicker to regulate out of negative emotional states than their younger peers, suggests a recent research. And even though the decline in physical health (that comes with age) and good moods are not usually synonymous, researcher Derek Isaacowitz of Northeastern University explores positive looking as one possible explanation for this phenomenon. So what explains older adults’ positive mood regulation? Older adults may be better at regulating emotion because they tend to direct their eyes away from negative material or toward positive material, he explains. The study is based on evidence indicating that, compared to younger adults, older adults prefer positive looking patterns and they show the most positive looking when they are in bad moods, even though this is when younger adults show the most negative looking. Psychiatrist Hemant Mittal gives his insight. “There are more reasons than one for this. Firstly, older people don’t like to look towards violence, be it in movies or real. So whenever there is anything negative around, older people are likely to look away while the younger ones take to aggression and violence. So while the young guns focus on violence, older minds are focused towards positivity,” he explains. Moreover, older people are likely to have a better sense of fulfillment as they’ve performed all their duties in life and are allowed to do what they want. “Also, they are inclined towards spirituality, which keeps them calm, and have a better social acceptability factor than younger people who struggle for the same,” adds Hemant, emphasising that though the study applies for people in the UK and the US, it isn’t exactly the same case in India. The Indian family structure is not the same as that in UK or US, explains Hemant. “Here, the older people are more likely to be subjected to trauma because they are treated like a burden on the family resource. The retired people are treated like they’re of no use… which only leads them into depression.”