Slashdot Mirror
Old People Enjoy Reading Negative Stories About Young
A study by Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick and co-author Matthias Hastall suggests that your grandma's self-esteem gets a boost when she hears about the stupid things young people do. "Living in a youth centered culture, they may appreciate a boost in self-esteem. That's why they prefer the negative stories about younger people, who are seen as having a higher status in our society," said Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick. From the article: "All the adults in the study were shown what they were led to believe was a test version of a new online news magazine. They were also given a limited time to look over either a negative and positive version of 10 pre-selected articles. Each story was also paired with a photograph depicting someone of either the younger or the older age group. The researchers found that older people were more likely to choose to read negative articles about those younger than themselves. They also tended to show less interest in articles about older people, whether negative or positive."
The difference is that the young aren't robbing the elderly blind. The elderly had their chance to make it big, but for whatever reason now feel entitled to year after year of social security increases, even as the wages that everybody else gets are flat or even shrinking with respect to the cost of living. Perhaps if the elderly as a whole had spent a bit more providing the youth with a proper education, keeping the jobs from going overseas and expecting them to work for free, there wouldn't be so much Schadenfreude going on.