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COVID-19 reduced age differences in social motivation

Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) maintains that when futures loom large, as they typically do in youth, people are motivated to explore. When future time is perceived as more limited, as is typical in old age, people are motivated to pursue emotionally meaningful goals. Because the COVID-19 p...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jiang, Li, Carstensen, Laura L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9870591/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36698578
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1075814
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author Jiang, Li
Carstensen, Laura L.
author_facet Jiang, Li
Carstensen, Laura L.
author_sort Jiang, Li
collection PubMed
description Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) maintains that when futures loom large, as they typically do in youth, people are motivated to explore. When future time is perceived as more limited, as is typical in old age, people are motivated to pursue emotionally meaningful goals. Because the COVID-19 pandemic primed mortality across the age spectrum, it provided an opportunity to examine whether age differences in social motivation typically observed were also present during the pandemic. We measured social motivation, as operationalized by social preferences, in two studies during peak of the pandemic in 2020. Once vaccines were introduced in 2021, we conducted two additional studies using the same experimental paradigm. As hypothesized, at the peak of the pandemic, social preferences favored emotionally meaningful partners regardless of age. Social preferences differed by age (as reliably observed in research conducted before the pandemic) when vaccines were available. Findings suggest that widely documented age differences in social motivation reflect time horizons more than chronological age.
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spelling pubmed-98705912023-01-24 COVID-19 reduced age differences in social motivation Jiang, Li Carstensen, Laura L. Front Psychol Psychology Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) maintains that when futures loom large, as they typically do in youth, people are motivated to explore. When future time is perceived as more limited, as is typical in old age, people are motivated to pursue emotionally meaningful goals. Because the COVID-19 pandemic primed mortality across the age spectrum, it provided an opportunity to examine whether age differences in social motivation typically observed were also present during the pandemic. We measured social motivation, as operationalized by social preferences, in two studies during peak of the pandemic in 2020. Once vaccines were introduced in 2021, we conducted two additional studies using the same experimental paradigm. As hypothesized, at the peak of the pandemic, social preferences favored emotionally meaningful partners regardless of age. Social preferences differed by age (as reliably observed in research conducted before the pandemic) when vaccines were available. Findings suggest that widely documented age differences in social motivation reflect time horizons more than chronological age. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-01-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9870591/ /pubmed/36698578 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1075814 Text en Copyright © 2023 Jiang and Carstensen. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Jiang, Li
Carstensen, Laura L.
COVID-19 reduced age differences in social motivation
title COVID-19 reduced age differences in social motivation
title_full COVID-19 reduced age differences in social motivation
title_fullStr COVID-19 reduced age differences in social motivation
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 reduced age differences in social motivation
title_short COVID-19 reduced age differences in social motivation
title_sort covid-19 reduced age differences in social motivation
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9870591/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36698578
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1075814
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