Experienced and remembered emotional intensity in older adults

After Ross Perot's abrupt withdrawal from the presidential race in July of 1992, supporters (n = 227) rated their initial emotional reactions and described their coping strategies. After the elections in November of 1992, supporters (n = 147) recalled their initial emotional reactions. In contrast to claims that subjective emotional intensity decreases with age, older adults (71-84 years, M = 75) initially reported feeling just as sad, angry, and hopeful as middle-aged (46-70 years, M = 60) and younger adults (22-45 years, M = 37). Older adults were more likely than middle-age and younger adults to disengage from thwarted political goals, however. For those who maintained their original goal, memory for the intensity of past feelings of sadness decreased with age. These findings suggest that age differences in response to survey questions about emotional intensity may reflect changes in memory for past emotions, and changes in coping strategies, rather than the intensity of the older adults' emotional experience as it occurred.