Social-class differences in one’s sensitivity toward others’ preferences in both young and older adults

초록

I investigated how social-class effects differ with age in the domain of choice. Young (less than 40) and old (over 60) participants from working-class and middle-class backgrounds indicated their preferences and choices about consumer products before and after seeing others’ preferences (consistent or conflicting with their own) for the same products. The result showed that social-class differences in choice were maintained into late adulthood. Replicating the effects among young participants, old working-class participants were more sensitive to social feedback in their choices, preferences, and recognition memory than old middle-class participants although older participants had poorer memory for the feedback, suggesting social cues were implicitly processed.

키워드