Prior literature has debated over whether the age-related positivity effect, defined as older adults showing a greater bias in cognitive processing for positively over negatively valenced information relative to younger adults, is goal-driven. This study attempted to directly address this debate by disentangling the influences of valence alone and the instrumentality of emotion on visual attention toward valenced stimuli. We reasoned that if the age-related positivity effect was goal-driven, it would be reversed, that is, older adults would pay more attention to anger-related than happiness-related stimuli when anger was made instrumental for the context. Eye-tracking findings generally support this hypothesis, suggesting that as we age, we selectively prioritize stimuli that are useful to us, not necessarily pleasant stimuli, in cognitive processing.