Speak and be damned
Australians are usually regarded as “straight shooters” in their general conversations but this can develop into a bigger social problem in older age, according to an Australian psychologist.
Whereas it is expected that people over 65 are more likely to speak their minds because of alleged wisdom or because “they have earned the right to do so”, it can often be due to a deteriorating brain.
Association Professor Bill von Hipped, a psychologist at the University of New South Wales, says that the brain decline means that older people become less inhibited socially and are more likely to make inappropriate comments.
“Older adults tend to be more likely to ask about private or personal issues in public than younger adults. We have suggestive evidence that this is brought about by declines in frontal lobe functioning,” von Hippel says.
“If I’m asking about your haemorrhoids in public – even if I don’t aim to be mean by doing it – I’m nevertheless humiliating you and I’m not providing you with positive emotional support. And this can be an added health issue because losing friends can lead to loneliness, which is bad for both mental and physical health.”
