People age gracefully and we believe that grey hair indicates wisdom. It is true always.
A recent study by psychologists found that older people are generally stable and better able to resist temptations in their daily lives. The study, involving people aged between 20 and 80 was done by Duke and Vanderbilt University psychologists.
“There is evidence here that emotional health and regulation improve with age,” said Daisy Burr, a Duke Ph.D. student who led the study with Gregory Samanez-Larkin, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience.
The researchers contacted them three times a day for ten days and checked the levels eight emotional states, including contentment, enthusiasm, relaxation and sluggishness.
The participants were checked about their desires including food or alcohol, cigarettes, social media, shopping, talking to someone, sex, sleep or work. And there were assessed as per the “global life satisfaction,” which determined their general well-being, regardless of the moment-to-moment moods.
It was found that older people in the study were more stable and “less volatile in their emotions,” And age, it turns out, is a stronger predictor of the ability to resist temptation than the emotional state. The research also found that goals change with the age with older people becoming more oriented towards present and “trying to maximize well-being every day. You want to feel good as much as possible.”
The study found people experiencing more negative affect are worse at resisting desires. Younger study participants who had higher levels of life satisfaction were better able to resist desires. But older adults were better at resisting temptation, regardless of their life satisfaction.
