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Does Older Adults’ Cognitive Function Disrupt the Malleability of Their Attitudes toward Outgroup Members?: An fMRI Investigation

In the current study we examine how individual differences in older adults’ global cognitive function impacts the extent to which their attitudes toward stigmatized individuals are malleable. Because prior research has elucidated the neural processes that are involved in evaluating stigmatized indiv...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Krendl, Anne C., Kensinger, Elizabeth A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4830528/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27074046
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152698
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author Krendl, Anne C.
Kensinger, Elizabeth A.
author_facet Krendl, Anne C.
Kensinger, Elizabeth A.
author_sort Krendl, Anne C.
collection PubMed
description In the current study we examine how individual differences in older adults’ global cognitive function impacts the extent to which their attitudes toward stigmatized individuals are malleable. Because prior research has elucidated the neural processes that are involved in evaluating stigmatized individuals who are responsible or not responsible for their condition, a cognitive neuroscience approach may be well-suited to answer this question. In the current study, 36 older and 17 young adults underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while evaluating images of homeless people who were described as being responsible or not responsible for their condition. They also indicated how much pity they felt for each of the individuals in order to determine the extent to which their attitudes were malleable (e.g., more pity for not-responsible as compared to responsible individuals). Participants’ cognitive function and baseline measure of their attitudes toward stigmatized individuals (including homeless individuals) were assessed. Results revealed that although older adults’ attitudes were malleable, the extent to which this was true varied due to individual differences in their global cognitive function. Specifically, the difference in the magnitude of older adults’ self-reported pity for not-responsible as compared to responsible homeless individuals was predicted by their global cognitive function. Moreover, the difference in pity that older adults expressed toward not-responsible as compared to responsible homeless individuals was related to activity in the left insula and the anterior cingulate cortex (regions implicated in empathy). These results suggest that attitude malleability is affected by individual differences in global cognitive function.
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spelling pubmed-48305282016-04-22 Does Older Adults’ Cognitive Function Disrupt the Malleability of Their Attitudes toward Outgroup Members?: An fMRI Investigation Krendl, Anne C. Kensinger, Elizabeth A. PLoS One Research Article In the current study we examine how individual differences in older adults’ global cognitive function impacts the extent to which their attitudes toward stigmatized individuals are malleable. Because prior research has elucidated the neural processes that are involved in evaluating stigmatized individuals who are responsible or not responsible for their condition, a cognitive neuroscience approach may be well-suited to answer this question. In the current study, 36 older and 17 young adults underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while evaluating images of homeless people who were described as being responsible or not responsible for their condition. They also indicated how much pity they felt for each of the individuals in order to determine the extent to which their attitudes were malleable (e.g., more pity for not-responsible as compared to responsible individuals). Participants’ cognitive function and baseline measure of their attitudes toward stigmatized individuals (including homeless individuals) were assessed. Results revealed that although older adults’ attitudes were malleable, the extent to which this was true varied due to individual differences in their global cognitive function. Specifically, the difference in the magnitude of older adults’ self-reported pity for not-responsible as compared to responsible homeless individuals was predicted by their global cognitive function. Moreover, the difference in pity that older adults expressed toward not-responsible as compared to responsible homeless individuals was related to activity in the left insula and the anterior cingulate cortex (regions implicated in empathy). These results suggest that attitude malleability is affected by individual differences in global cognitive function. Public Library of Science 2016-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4830528/ /pubmed/27074046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152698 Text en © 2016 Krendl, Kensinger http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Krendl, Anne C.
Kensinger, Elizabeth A.
Does Older Adults’ Cognitive Function Disrupt the Malleability of Their Attitudes toward Outgroup Members?: An fMRI Investigation
title Does Older Adults’ Cognitive Function Disrupt the Malleability of Their Attitudes toward Outgroup Members?: An fMRI Investigation
title_full Does Older Adults’ Cognitive Function Disrupt the Malleability of Their Attitudes toward Outgroup Members?: An fMRI Investigation
title_fullStr Does Older Adults’ Cognitive Function Disrupt the Malleability of Their Attitudes toward Outgroup Members?: An fMRI Investigation
title_full_unstemmed Does Older Adults’ Cognitive Function Disrupt the Malleability of Their Attitudes toward Outgroup Members?: An fMRI Investigation
title_short Does Older Adults’ Cognitive Function Disrupt the Malleability of Their Attitudes toward Outgroup Members?: An fMRI Investigation
title_sort does older adults’ cognitive function disrupt the malleability of their attitudes toward outgroup members?: an fmri investigation
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4830528/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27074046
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152698
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