The older you get, the harder it is to laugh

Older people often find it difficult to recognize the funny in comedy stories. This is because they have impaired memory and reasoning ability due to old age.

Research at the University of Washington, USA, found that because elderly people have difficulties in cognitive flexibility, abstract thinking and short-term memories, they also have difficulty in understanding comprehension tests. comedy.

Researchers have asked 40 healthy people over 65 and 40 college students to practice comedy-related exercises. Participants also have to choose a button point for each piece of comedy and choose a funny ending for the comic strips.

The results showed that young people performed 6% better in narrative and 14% in comics than older people.

According to psychologists, humor comes from recognizing the irrational or contradictions between what you expect and the truth.

"Research does not have to find people to see what is funny, but to find out whether people realize what is supposed to be funny," study author Brian Carpenter said. "There are some basic cognitive mechanisms to understand jokes. In older people, because they have problems in these cognitive regions, it is more difficult to understand jokes."

"That does not mean that the elderly are not funny and don't laugh," added co-author Wingyun Mak.

MT