Empathic reactions to the emotional facial expressions of the elderly

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Empathy, the understanding of and adequate reaction to the emotions of others, is of central importance to human interaction. However, there is evidence that in intergenerational interactions between younger and older adults, both the ability of younger individuals to accurately understand and their tendency to react empathically to the emotions of the elderly is reduced. Yet, when people do not react empathically to the emotions of others, the resulting interactions are generally perceived to be less pleasant and rewarding. In such interactions misunderstandings are more likely and both interaction partners may be less interested to continue or repeat the interaction. This phenomenon has potentially broad implications as many interactions between the elderly and younger individuals are brief and can have important consequences. These include doctor-patient interactions, but also interactions with a variety of official agencies and in social work settings, as well as more everyday interactions such as customer relations. In all of these, there is potential for adverse consequences when the emotional content of an elderly person’s message is misunderstood or ignored. The present research aims to elucidate our understanding of this process by studying empathic reactions to the emotion expressions of the elderly as a function of sociality as well as individual differences. Secondary goals are to study the influence of affiliation motivation for empathy and the empathic reactions of the elderly themselves.