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Researchers recently examined how young, middle-aged, and older adults emotionally react while watching films designed to elicit sadness, disgust, and neutral reactions. The researchers assessed participants’ physiological responding (e.g., heart rate reactivity, sweat responses on the fingers) while the participants watched the films, and collected participants’ self-reports of their emotional experiences after the films. Older adults reported greater sadness in response to all films and demonstrated larger physiological responses (e.g., increased heart rate reactivity, larger sweat responses) to the sadness film than did middle-aged and younger participants. These differences held after accounting for self-reported sadness prior to viewing films and self-reported personal experiences of loss. In sum, data suggested that reactivity to sadness increases with age. Read more in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience…

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