Younger and Older Adults’ Health Lies to Close Others

Jessica C Frias, Alison M O’Connor and Rodlescia S Sneed

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2024, vol. 79, issue 5, 104088-123

Abstract: ObjectivesLying is a common social behavior; however, there is limited research on lying about health and if this differs into later life. This study sought to explore age differences in the frequency of and motivations behind telling health-related lies and if lying differs within romantic and parent/child relationships.MethodsYounger (N = 158) and older adults (N = 149) reported how often they told general health-related lies, how often they lied about health to their romantic partner and parent or adult child, and why they told health lies.ResultsCompared with older adults, younger adults lied more frequently to conceal sickness and pain as well as to feign sickness. Younger adults also told more health lies to their parent than their romantic partner, but older adults lied to their adult child and partner at similar rates. Younger adults reported lying more about their health because they felt ashamed or embarrassed and they worried about what others would think of them compared with older adults.DiscussionThese results suggest that health-related honesty may increase in later life and that younger and older adults differ in why they tell health lies. Implications for psychological theory on lying about one’s health and health interventions are discussed.

Keywords: Age; Communication; Deception; Dishonesty; Shame (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbae022 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:79:y:2024:i:5:p:104088-123.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().