Over-65s don't 'get' sarcasm

It would be an interesting exercise to sit down and actually try and think of anything that it purely old age related.

Grumpiness.....hardly.... many a teen and 40 odd are jolly grumpy and I know some very jolly 80 year olds.

Adventurous....I'm going on some pretty interesting holidays of late....they scare me to death but am still going. Whilst DD is so jolly staid about what she does!

Any offers?

Some people just don't get written sarcasm full stop. I don't we change with age in this respect. Why would we? It's part and parcel of our natures.

Love the article. I do always treat those studies with a bit of scepticism. Is scepticism allowed in our dotage?

Oh, don't we......??

Katek

I don't get sarcasm at all. Now irony........

*"Last spring, psychologists around the world were shocked when it was revealed that 61 out of 100 published psychology experiments delivered results that could not be reproduced by other researchers. To me, this study looks utterly robust, however, and given my extensive training in statistics and psychology, I am unlikely to be wrong."

I'm 70 so obviously I just don't get it

Wow, that is clever, being able to detect in advance whether this study is one of the 61 out of 100 that cant be repeated to get the same results or one of the 39 out of a hundred that will stand up to a repeat. On just 36 participants too! That extensive training in statistics must come in handy!

(I hope you all recognise that as sarcasm?)

What amazes me is that someone funds these pointless studies.

Anyone watch "The Big Bang Theory" where Leonard has to explain sarcasm to Sheldon? Nothing to do with age/

People who do surveys have such a touching faith that people answer truthfully and no awareness that a silly question gets a silly answer. Quite sweet really, but a waste of money.

Personally I love people being sarcastic when they are annoyed because I take them at face value and then they are stuck, do they:
1. Let you go thinking you think they really mean it.
2. Sound silly by having to explain that they didn't really mean it.

I am quite good at it so I expect a researcher might conclude that I didn't understand it!
The last time was at a supermarket checkout where I just politely asked someone to let me get past. She seemed to take great exception to this, got right in my face and said that she was 'most terribly, terribly , terribly sorry that she had inconvenienced me'. I just gave her a nice smile and said it was perfectly OK and not to worry about it. After she had moved off the checkout woman said 'I think she was being sarcastic'- to which I replied 'I know she was!'

I have done it online too and it works a treat! I was having a great argument with someone who made it perfectly clear that she couldn't stand me or my ideas. When she got really annoyed with me she wrote a really sarcastic post, meaning the exact opposite of what she wrote. I chose to take it at face value and thanked her- she couldn't resist and had to explain- sounding a real prat!

You should try it, if you don't already, it is great fun.

I go by 'sarcasm is the lowest form of wit' and get my own back.
If researchers take this to mean that I don't understand it then I'm not bothered!

Ha ha! Love that last paragraph Anya
I did read recently that loss of sense of humour was an early sign of dementia.
Or could it be that we are less willing to judge that someone is being sarcastic, and less likely to take offence?

I did note that "This test consists of 15 videos of acted social interactions between 20-60s long, in which five sincere, five simple sarcasm and five paradoxical sarcasm exchanges are shown."

Now I don't know about anyone else, but I find that "acted social reactions" don't give the same non-verbal information as actual, real-life, social interactions. Even a good actor is still acting. Maybe with age comes more likelihood that we will not be convinced by a stage depiction?

I don't reckon that only 116 participants detecting whether fifteen scenarios are sarcastic or not is that wonderful a representative sample, either.

Whole report of this study

Fortunately, Gransnet is always totally sarcasm-free, so we can ignore this study anyway.

Absolutely, grumppa!

Once or twice I might have tried a bit of sarcasm on here, and people didn't get it. Feels a bit making when people innocently take it at face value.

I haven't been able to try my technique on gransnet - very disappointing!

You should venture onto the political forums sometimes, Leticia!

(threads, I meant)

Sarcasm? What's that?
A small channel islander disease?

Carried genetically by vertically challenged islanders in jersey(s)?

I keep off them Ana.

I thought old people invented sarcasm.....