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Growing Less Empathic With Age: Disinhibition of the Self-Perspective

School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Address correspondence to Phoebe Bailey, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia. E-mail: pbailey{at}psy.unsw.edu.au

Older adults have a reduced capacity to take the perspective of another, and it has been suggested that disinhibition may be one mechanism contributing to this difficulty. To test this possibility, we had behavioral measures that were sensitive to inhibitory failure and to theory of mind (ToM) administered to younger and older adults. One of the measures of ToM directly manipulated inhibitory demands, involving either high or low levels of self-perspective inhibition. The results indicated that older adults were selectively impaired on the high-inhibition condition. Further, of the various aspects of cognitive functioning that we assessed, including memory, mental flexibility, and cognitive speed, only cognitive disinhibition mediated age-related differences in ToM. These results suggest that inhibitory control is an important mediator of ToM in late adulthood.

Key Words: Disinhibition • Age differences • Theory of mind