I recently read somewhere that cynics are more likely to get Alzheimer’s. I don’t have a source, so it could be some junk study, but it could make a certain amount of sense in this context: if the cynics get skimmed off by Alzheimer’s, then the older people who are still answering the phone to scammers are more likely to be the gullible ones.
I agree this seems to be true, but before we take it as fact, is it statistically proven that gullibility increases with age? Maybe these people were this way in their youth as well?
It’s not only scams, but urban legends and conspiracy theories as well - all seem to be readily believed by the elderly.
I agree with a lot of the points that others have made, but I think it also has to do with technology and related advances. But this has a broader and more indirect influence than one might assume at first glance, and applies to things that are themselves not technological at all.
Because I think what a lot of people lose due to the world changing in ways that they can’t keep up with is the sense that they should understand things. You’re a 30-40 year old and in your prime, and you expect to know and understand things that you’re doing or are being done to you. Someone suggests some idea to you and you’ll be skeptical because you are not going to plunge in unless you’ve verified to yourself that you understand how this works and why it makes sense. So you are much harder to fool.
Not so an older person. There are major aspects of the way the world works these days that they have a hazy conception of. It’s difficult to learn and understand new things as you get older. So an older person gets increasingly used to the general mindset that “I don’t know how this works, these young people have figured out some way to make this work”, and so on. This involves a certain amount of trust in the wisdom of others.
The upshot is that it can be hard to shed that mindset even for things that they are capable of understanding. Some slick operator whips out a bunch of numbers - the numbers seem superficially to make sense and it would take some effort (for anyone) to figure out whether there’s a catch or what it might be. A younger person, whose inclination is to only commit to things that they really understand, will either dig deeper into it or reject it entirely in favor of something else that can be understood and verified without as much effort. But an older person is already resigned to the notion that they have to take all sorts of things at face value, so they are more likely to just take this at face value too.
One study says it’s because the ventromedial area of the prefrontal cortex starts to deteriorate after 60, and that area makes you less likely to question things. I’m giving a link, but 95% of the time my links don’t come through.
The study is from the University of Iowa, and published in Frontiers of Neuroscience.
My immediate reaction was that this link would be a rickroll or some other prank. 
Thank you. I think trying to post links from my iPad is the problem.
Whatever the source, the excess “http” at the front end of the URL is what I removed to get your link to work.
PS: You’re welcome. Glad to help.
From this link: “But we found that people with prefrontal cortex damage tend to be less likely to question, more prone to believing conspiracy theories and overall have less nuanced thinking.”
So does that mean that watching Fox News CAUSES brain damage, or that people with brain damage tend to watch Fox News? Or both?
Maybe because we came from an era in which people were less selfish and conniving than those born during the Reagan years and later. Reagan’s policies threw-open the floodgates of naked greed upon the land. Gen X-ers and millenials care little about fairness or social equality. And they pray upon the weak and aged. Such is their worship of money. The little sap-suckers. They dismiss the sage wisdom of experience and brush away the elderly, throwing away acquired wisdom as though it were trash. This is a terrible mistake, but nothing can stop it. Lessons can’t be taught to those not listening. And it is the rare young person who sees the value being wasted.
My father grew up just after The War, was beaten and thrown out of his home at 15, by his Colonel father (probably suffering from acute PSTD, but had been awarded by Royal decree) and has had an acute sense of mistrust but has also been open to easy wins for most of his life. We’ve always been pretty close, and now I am the ‘go to’ person for tech-related issues a lot of the time, for my parents and, sometimes, siblings. I correspond with my parents via email - the conversations on Skype are not good - and half of the time I’m trying to help them solve their laptop and PC issues from afar. After so many hours trying to fix them from many miles away I bought them both Nexus 7s and they seem to be working okay, after reminding them the only way they can be extorted is by giving a credit card number.
When I visited their home last, my dad’s new Windows 8 machine was debilitated completely with problems. I used all of the software recommended in The Straight Dope, plus a few things I’ve picked up along the way (but, mostly, it was TSD’s recommends). I said to him several times, during the few days it took to fix his laptop’s issues, that it is the person clicking the links and not the computer that will cause the problems. We had a few beers and good food, in between me trying to uncouple his broken six-month-old Windows 8 machine. :smack:
We have no trust issues - my parents’ financial situation has been improved, albeit temporarily, by my actions and I always take them out for meals and buy them gifts (which can be very, very small) whenever I visit. It means quite a bit of time and effort but, I hope, the issues of trust and resource highlighted in previous posts will be insignificant as they move to their mid seventies. I hope. One other light that this thread has brought to bear is the trust my sister and I have. We’ve been good since we were young and I’m now pretty close with her family. She’s geographically close but has her family to help provide for. I’m on a different continent but, as a typical expat, have in the back of my mind the route I’d take to leave my work/country/apartment/colleagues/friends to go home if needs be. Plus I don’t have a family to provide for. The two of us, working together, might create some serenity in those old folks lives. I dearly hope so.
People have always been selfish and conniving, some more than others. Much as I dislike a great deal of Reagan’s policies, that’s not something you can lay at his feet. However, most Gen X and Millenial people care a great deal about fairness and social equality – otherwise, we wouldn’t be having a debate about gay folks getting married and such.
Worship of money being a generational thing? Oh, man, I’m not touching that one.
Also, your post sounds exactly like something my mother would say. Mom, izzat you? (If so, I have a LOT of posting history to hide.)
I’m rather dubious of these type of assertions/hypotheses. If we buy the hoary old proposition that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, con man must have ranked a close second ( “Hey, hey - that’s a fine chunk od mammoth brain you have there. Think you might be interested in trading it for this magic rock I just found?” ). We are quite selfish as a species and I highly doubt that generational differences are all that profound in that particular regard.
I know with my mom, her mind is still there for the most part, but she cannot handle anxiety at all any more. As soon as she starts to feel any anxiety, anyone can get her to buy or do anything they want. People who prey on the elderly know this I think. At least once a year its something; last time it was a prank caller who said one of her children was in jail on a DUI and that she needed to send bail money. The story was complete and utter nonsense, the caller did not even have the names or relationships right, but she almost sent them several thousand dollars.
I’ve watched my mom over the last 10 years or so. She used to be a sharp go-getter, running her own businesses at a time when that was very unusual. She was plugged into the news and current events.
Now- she tries. She really does. But she just can’t keep up with all of the possible ways that people can scam her. She doesn’t have a corporate IT department sending out emails that read “We’ve encountered a new form of phishing, and it looks like this…”. She and her friends don’t talk about the most recent spammy email they got.
So I blame a lot of it on Mom just not being as connected/plugged into current scams as she used to be. Lots of today’s threats just didn’t exist for most of her life.
Old people have seen their friends and loved ones die; their children (if any) have grown up and moved away, not even calling.
In short: people who were accustomed to having lots of others around now find themselves alone, with little or no contact with others.
Then some bright and good-looking young person seems to promise to be their friends - they will actually return a phone call and everything!
They get to liking the young person - and you trust the people you like.
I just had an attractive young woman promise to save me money on my utility bill - all I had to do was produce a copy of the bill - she would even wait while I down loaded and printed a copy.
No hand-outs, no Utility Company ID - a polo shirt with some “save-u-money” company name on it.
I told her I’d look it up online and signup that way. She kept her smile, bless her heart.
I guess the one in 50 that she hooks pays better than McDonalds, but self image counts for something. Getting up in the morning, brushing her lovely long hair, checking her smile and thinking “Today, with any luck, I’ll scam 10 people!” has got to be depressing.
Except she sees it as “being more clever than 10 people”.
As Pepe LePeau says “Le sigh”.
I bet your group of dads has sent stuff my group of dads, and vice versa.
There seems to be a generation gap with source-checking as well, like they just believe it if they heard it on Fox, even if the source is some nutjob blog. Most of my family just believes the craziest things and doesn’t question them. They forward the worst glurge on FB as fact, never checking. Ditto conspiracies. WTH?
The exception to all this is my mom. 72 and she is totally un-trusting – sometimes I have to convince her that there are not hordes of people just waiting to take advantage of “an old lady”. (Most recently WRT having her car repaired. I had to tell her that the price quoted and the work recommended was reasonable for her vehicle. She had a shade-tree mechanic for years, so going to a normal mechanic gives her sticker shock.)
Ever heard of the term “robber baron”? That was coined on about 1870 and applied to people who were powerful, selfish and coniving.
The New Testament book of Matthew, 6:24 (NIV), says: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Whether you belive the Bible from a relious perspective or not, it does indicate that the “worship of money” has been around a long time. I mean, I know Reagan was old, but I don’t think his policies predate the book of Matthew!
And the Old testament book of Job, 12:12 (NIV) says: “Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?”. Apparently, dismissing the wisdom of one’s elders has been an issue for a rather long time as well. Maybe it was Reagans great [sup]100[/sup] grandfather’s policies…
I really just point all this out to say there is “nothing new under the sun”.