One of the most intriguing phenomena in the study of aging is known as the “positivity effect.” When asked to remember events from their own pasts, older adults and younger adults (on average) tend to recall similar numbers of happy memories. But older adults tend to recall far fewer negative memories than younger adults do. Even when the older adults do recall negative memories, they tend to rate these events as less distressing, compared with younger adults reporting similar events. This effect seems to be constant across both men and women, across different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and different socioeconomic levels. It’s as if older adults tend to recall the past in a rosy glow of the Good Old Days (“Sure, we were poor, but we were happy!”).
Similar positivity effects can be obtained in laboratory studies. For example, in one study, older and younger adults were given a chart with information about various types of cars (gas mileage, sticker price, safety rating, and so on), and asked which they would buy. Older adults spent more time studying the positive features and less time studying the negative features than younger subjects did.
Attention influences what memories get stored in our brain, and also which memories get recalled later. If older adults are simply more biased to process positive information over negative information, this could influence how memories are stored and how they are recalled later. Consistent with this idea, recent research has shown that the amygdala, a small area of the brain important for processing emotional information, is just as active in older adults looking at pleasant pictures as it is in younger adults – but the older adults show much less amygdala activity in response to negative pictures than younger adults do.
Another factor may be that, as we age, we gain more perspective. We may become more able to look back on a lifetime and draw some meaning and satisfaction from events previously perceived as challenges or setbacks. In other words, memories we perceived as highly distressing when we were young adults become less distressing with the passage of time.
Some have suggested that the positivity effect reflects repression or denial of negative events, and that this could be harmful in the long run, by encouraging people to ignore, rather than learn from, difficult experiences. But there is also research suggesting that focusing on positive events, even in times of great grief (such as following the death of a spouse), is beneficial. Some studies even suggest that those older adults who show the strongest positivity effect may be the ones who show the fewest signs of cognitive decline. This might be because dwelling on negative memories could produce feelings of helplessness and despair, which in turn can cause release of stress hormones that, over the long term, can impair health and also damage brain areas such as the hippocampus that are important for memory. It’s conceivable that the positivity effect may help protect against such stress-related damage.
So although many mysteries remain about why the positivity effect exists, it may have a powerful ability to influence well-being. Maybe we’d all be a little better off if we encouraged ourselves to focus our memories on the Good Old Days instead of the bad times – it might bring a smile to the face and could even be good for the brain.
To read more on the “positivity effect” in aging:
Carstensen, L. and Mikels, J. (2005). “At the intersection of emotion and cognition: Aging and the positivity effect.” In, Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 117-121.
M. Mather and L. Carstensen (2006). “Aging and motivated cognition: The positivity effect in attention and memory.” In, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 496-502.
S. Schlagman and others (2006). “A content analysis of involuntary autobiographical memories: Examining the positivity effect in old age.” In, Memory, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 161-175.
