Age-related differences in judgments of inappropriate behavior are related to humor style preferences.

Abstract

Identifying social gaffes is important for maintaining relationships. Older adults are less able than young to discriminate between socially appropriate and inappropriate behavior in video clips. One open question is how these social appropriateness ratings relate to potential age differences in the perception of what is actually funny or not. In the present study, young, middle-aged, and older adults were equally able to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate social behavior in a diverse set of clips relevant to both age groups. However, young and middle-aged adults rated the gaffe clips as funnier than control clips and young adults smiled more during the inappropriate clips than the control clips. Older adults did not show this pattern, suggesting that they did not find the inappropriate clips funny. Additionally, young adults endorsed a more aggressive humor style than middle-aged and older adults and aggressive humor style endorsement mediated age differences in social appropriateness ratings. Results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms such as cohort differences in humor and developmental prioritization of certain humor styles, as well as the importance of investigating age differences in both abilities and preferences.

Age differences in right-wing authoritarianism and their relation to emotion recognition.

“…Consistent with this idea, declines in emotion recognition mediate age differences in other social insights, including older men's verbosity (Ruffman, Murray, Halberstadt, & Taumoepeau, 2010), older adults' understanding of social gaffes (Halberstadt, Ruffman, Murray, Taumoepeau, & Ryan, 2011; although see Stanley, Lohani, & Isaacowitz, 2014 for evidence that older adults do not always find social gaffes harder to identify), and older adults' lie detection (Ruffman, Murray, Halberstadt, & Vater, 2012). The explanation given for these relations is that difficulty detecting emotional cues makes it more likely that one will continue to talk despite emotional cues to stop (verbosity), fail to understand how certain AGE DIFFERENCES IN RWA 7 things make others feel uncomfortable and therefore should not be said (social gaffes), or detect emotional leaks in liars.…”

Gender differences on laugh‐related traits: A cross‐sectional study

“…Later, Ruch et al () found that age and gelotophobia had a negative correlation, by the measure of Pho‐Phi‐Kat. In addition, past studies have found that people over the age of 35 had higher scores related to using positive humour styles but had lower scores related to hostile humour styles than did young adults (17–21 years old) (Damianakis & Marziali, ; Stanley, Lohani, & Isaacowitz, ). In general, negative laugh‐related traits (i.e., fear of being laughed at, enjoying laughing at others) become weaker with age.…”

Health care risk managers' consensus on the management of inappropriate behaviors among hospital staff

“…Inappropriate behaviors have been witnessed in physicians (77%) and in nurses (65%) . Inappropriate behavior of health care workers, such as aggression, is a contributing factor that increases the risk of making errors, causing delays in delivery of care or conflict and stress for health care workers . In Rosenstein and O'Daniel's study of 1487 health care workers, 75% of respondents believed that medical errors caused by disruptive behavior could have been prevented, and 60% reported that they personally knew of at least one error that occurred because of disruptive behavior .…”

“…20 Inappropriate behavior of health care workers, such as aggression, is a contributing factor that increases the risk of making errors, causing delays in delivery of care or conflict and stress for health care workers. 14,21,22 In Rosenstein and O'Daniel's study of 1487 health care workers, 75% of respondents believed that medical errors caused by disruptive behavior could have been prevented, and 60% reported that they personally knew of at least one error that occurred because of disruptive behavior. 23 Another study that included 4530 health care workers showed that 27% felt there was a linkage between disruptive behavior and patient mortality, 67% believed that disruptive behaviors and adverse events are linked together, and 71% felt that disruptive behaviors can be linked to medical errors.…”