PURSUING EUDAIMONIC GOALS MODERATED AGE DIFFERENCES IN ATTENDING TO OTHERS’ EMOTIONS

In this study, 59 younger (aged from 18 to 24) and 66 older participants (aged from 58 to 84) were presented with different emotional expressions (happy, sad, and angry), and the closeness of the facial stimuli was manipulated by telling participants that the targets shared many (little) similarities with them. Participants’ values on eudaimonic (hedonic) goals and whether they regarded happiness (meaning) as important were also measured. Results revealed that regardless of valence of the facial expressions, among participants who didn’t value eudaimonic goals, older adults generally paid less attention to others’ emotions than did younger adults; however, among participants who valued eudaimonic goals, older adults did not differ from younger adults in attending to non-close others’ emotions, and even demonstrated more attention to close-others’ emotions than younger adults. These results suggested that eudaimonic goals (but not hedonic goals) motivate older adults to attend to others’ emotional expressions.