Age, anger, and gratitude: an online emotion induction to assess advice-taking in older age

Older adults prioritize emotion regulation over other cognitively demanding tasks. Thus, emotions requiring regulation may increase reliance on advice when making judgements. An online sample of 42 young, 48 middle-aged, and 42 older adults were randomly allocated to either an anger, gratitude, or neutral emotion induction, using autobiographical recall. A judge-advisor task measured advice-taking, and participants rated their confidence, perceived advice accuracy, and emotions, followed by the general decision-making styles questionnaire. Due to emotion induction failure, a global positive mood score was explored. Although positive mood did not correlate with advice-taking, greater age was associated with lesser avoidant decision-making style, lower pre- and post-advice confidence, and greater positive mood. Perceived advice accuracy was positively correlated with both pre- and post-advice confidence ratings, positive mood, and advice-taking. The present study provides no evidence for age-related differences in the degree of advice-taking, but suggests that different mechanisms likely underpin advice-taking at different ages.