Effects of executive ability on bias and ingroup perceptions in aging.

Prior work on aging and prejudice has identified that declining executive ability underlies older adults' (OA') increased anti-outgroup bias. The current work, however, suggests that there may also be a motivational reason. Here, we explored the possibility that for OA with relatively lower executive ability, anti-outgroup bias may serve an ironic purpose of maximizing a fundamental social goal: maintaining ingroup positivity.

Age Effects on Trustworthiness Activation and Trust Biases in Face Perception.

Objective: Older adults evaluate faces as being more trustworthy than do younger adults. The present work examined whether aging is associated with changes in the dynamic activation of trustworthiness categories toward faces, and if category activation relates to enhanced trust.

Method: Younger and older adults categorized faces as trustworthy or untrustworthy while computer mouse trajectories were recorded to measure dynamic category activation.