During the summer of 2020, the rate of COVID-19 infections grew substantially in Germany, where Heidelberg University and Humboldt University researchers conducted their study. But the theme of the research was psychology, not epidemiology. The participants in the study were Germans ranging in age from 47 to 94 years. The study question was what effect, if any, the increasing infection rate had on how old the participants felt themselves to be. Different groups of study participants had been surveyed at points from June through September.
In response to my inquiry, Markus Wettstein, the lead researcher, summarized the study results: “Those assessed in September (when the infection rate was higher) felt younger than those assessed in June (when the infection rate was lower), controlling for age, gender, and other factors. The association between infection rate on a given day with the subjective age reported was closest among individuals who were older, and also among those who were more worried about their health. This is in line with the idea of a defensive mechanism of feeling younger.”
More generally, seniors shave between 11 and 21 years off their chronological age when thinking about how old they feel. The gap is about 20% of the chronological age. This difference between chronological and felt age can be seen as a result of seniors wanting to emotionally distance themselves from the infirmities of advanced age.
As consumers age, they acquire a positivity bias, causing them to pay more attention to upsides and put a happy edge on fear. Unlike younger adults, seniors fear health threats more than they do social threats, but they prefer not to fear either. University of Michigan research suggests that an aspect of this is that seniors remember less well than younger adults do any aspects of decisions warning of possible losses.
In contrast, emotional appeals help elderly shoppers remember details about sources of sales messages more accurately. This is of use when completing the persuasion requires multiple meetings. Ethical marketers recognize how the elderly make higher quality decisions when allowed abundant time.
In influence efforts with older adults, there’s no need to avoid fear appeals. Seniors respond better to fear-laden sales messages than to purely rational sales messages, especially if the fear appeal is combined with appeals to positive emotions, like comfort, contentment, and relief.
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Hew to How Old the Senior Feels
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