On the various incarnations of The Muppet Show, my favorite characters were those two youngster-bashing old men, Statler and Waldorf. Their biting wit was always a sarcastic highlight of the show for me; no matter what the other Muppets might be doing, it was never enough to impress the peanut gallery. While it’s a funny character trait for a show, it’s also based in reality. As it turns out, older people love hearing bad things about young people because it boosts their self-esteem.
According to a survey done of some 276 Germans by Ohio State University’s Sylvia Knobloch-Westerwick and Zeppelin University’s Matthias Hastall, older people preferred to read negative articles about young people and cared little for articles about their peer group. Young people came up with the exact opposite result, gravitating to positive articles about young people while caring little for articles about older people or negative articles about young people. The youth-bashing gave older people an almost immediate boost in self-esteem.
“Living in a youth centered culture, they may appreciate a boost in self-esteem. That’s why they prefer the negative stories about younger people, who are seen as having a higher status in our society,” said Dr. Knobloch-Westerwick. “Everybody likes a self-esteem boost. For young people though, it’s almost automatic. Youth is considered important in society.”
Tags: age, old people love negative news about young people, old people versus young people, Germany, self-esteem, older people get a self-esteem boost by reading negative stories about young people, Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, Matthias Hastall, Zeppelin University, Ohio State University