The positivity effect is robust to health and social content in ambiguous scenario interpretation

These studies investigated whether the positivity effect in older adults results in positively valenced interpretations of ambiguous scenarios and whether personally relevant health content and induced positive and negative moods attenuate or moderate the effect. In two studies conducted in 2022 and 2023, older (n_Study1 = 31, M_ageStudy1 = 72.16, SD_ageStudy1 = 7.81, n_Study2 = 51, M_ageStudy2 = 71.64, SD_ageStudy2 = 6.39) and younger (n_Study1 = 25, M_ageStudy1 = 19.16, SD_ageStudy1 = 1.49, n_Study2 = 51, M_ageStudy2 = 20.20, SD_ageStudy2 = 1.88) adults underwent audiovisual mood inductions (positive, neutral, negative; within subjects) with baseline and postinduction affect measured and completed an ambiguous scenario interpretation task (health, social content; within subjects) and measures of depression and anxiety symptomology. Studies found that older versus younger adults provided significantly more positive interpretations of ambiguous scenarios, and this positivity effect was not significantly attenuated by health-related content. There was no significant evidence for age-based differences in mood-induced processing. Instead, negative mood congruence was found across age groups in Study 2 using improved methodology. In sum, older adults provided significantly more positive interpretations of ambiguous scenarios than younger adults, consistent with top-down emotion regulation processes used to increase well-being. The positivity effect was robust to health and social content, and both age groups demonstrated negative mood-induced processing, consistent with past findings. Most participants were born in Australia and had high levels of education and socioeconomic resources, and thus replication in more culturally and socioeconomically diverse participants is needed. Understanding the positivity effect has implications for how interventions may target mental health-related mechanisms.