Aging-related selectivity and susceptibility to irrelevant affective information in the construction of attitudes

Two experiments were conducted to examine the hypothesis that aging is associated with an increase in the selectivity associated with task engagement and related cognitive resource allocation. Adults ranging in age from 20 to 83 years were asked to provide attitude ratings about fictitious political program proposals that varied in terms of personal relevance. Of primary interest was the extent to which these attitude ratings would be influenced by the likability of the individual (i.e., source) responsible for the programs. Consistent with expectations, older adults were more likely than younger adults to provide attitude ratings consistent with the likableness of the source, with this effect being moderated by need for structure and personal relevance. The findings are supportive of the general argument that older adults are able to monitor and control the impact of irrelevant information on performance, but are most likely to engage in such operations in situations of high meaningfulness. Younger adults exhibit similar effects, but the variability across levels of meaningfulness increases with age, a pattern consistent with an aging-related increase in selectivity.