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Age differences in memory for emotional messages: Do older people always remember the positive?

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Abstract

Theories and empirical research in the Western literature suggest that with age, people are more motivated to derive emotion meaning from life, and one way to do so is to disproportionably remember the positive in life. We examined this bias—known as the positivity bias—among younger (aged 18–27 years; n=91) and older (aged 52–85 years, n=94) Hong Kong Chinese, by presenting them with health-promoting messages that had the same content but different background music. We found that, in contrast to prior findings obtained in the West, older Hong Kong Chinese remembered the most information from messages with negative, relative to positive or neutral, background music. Younger adults did not show these biases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Room 328 Sino Building, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

    Helene H. Fung (assistant professor of psychology) & Lilian Y. T. Tang

Authors
  1. Helene H. Fung
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  2. Lilian Y. T. Tang
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Correspondence to Helene H. Fung.

Additional information

Her research interests lie in social motivation and cognition across adulthood. She obtained her Ph.D from Stanford University. She is the winner of the 1999 Behavioral and Social Science Pre-dissertation Research Award, offered by Gerontological Society of America, and the 1998 Margaret Clark Paper Award, offered by the Association of Anthropology and Gerontology. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Psychology in Chinese Societies.

Lilian Y.T. Tang obtained her undergraduate degree in psychology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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Fung, H.H., Tang, L.Y.T. Age differences in memory for emotional messages: Do older people always remember the positive?. Ageing Int. 30, 245–262 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-005-1014-y

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