A combination of biological hardwiring and the sum of accumulated life experiences.
Adaptive Openness #
When crossing the road with a big truck coming at them, children would run forward, adults would turn back and old people would freeze. Would you agree? #
The scenario you describe aligns well with certain psychological and physiological tendencies associated with age-related decision-making, risk assessment, and physical agility. Each group’s reaction is influenced by cognitive and sensory processing speed, emotional regulation, and learned responses to stress.
Children: In a scenario where a large truck approaches, children are more likely to run forward because their risk assessment skills are still underdeveloped. They tend to act on impulse, often lacking the foresight to gauge danger accurately. Running forward aligns with a straightforward, “fight or flight” response—except children, driven by curiosity and less inhibition, often lack the “freeze” option. Additionally, children are typically more physically agile, which naturally inclines them toward immediate forward action.
Adults: Adults tend to turn back, an act that reflects a matured, calculated approach to risk. Experience enables them to rapidly assess the threat, weighing options to maximize safety. The decision to turn back reflects an instinctual orientation to avoid hazards by returning to known safe zones. This response is also influenced by a refined understanding of self-preservation, where adults prioritize avoidance of harm over rapid, reflexive actions.
Older People: The tendency of older individuals to freeze may stem from a combination of physiological limitations and cognitive processing delays. With age, reaction times tend to slow down, and sensory processing may be less acute, leading to moments of hesitation. Additionally, older adults often experience an increased likelihood of “tonic immobility,” a survival mechanism characterized by temporary paralysis when facing acute stress. Freezing might thus be both a biological response and a pragmatic one, as the rapid decision-making required for fight or flight may feel overwhelming.
In sum, while this framework doesn’t apply universally, it does capture general trends in behavior across age groups in high-stress situations. Each reaction can be seen as a combination of biological hardwiring and the sum of accumulated life experiences that drive age-specific responses to threat.
How would each of these three reactions correlate to the traits from the Big Five? #
The Big Five personality traits—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—offer a compelling framework for interpreting these age-specific reactions to a sudden, life-threatening event. Each reaction (running forward, turning back, and freezing) reflects a different interplay of these traits, shaped by both developmental stages and the demands of immediate survival.
- Children (Running Forward)
Openness: Children typically score high in openness, as they exhibit a natural curiosity and willingness to engage with their environment, often without full regard for risks. Running forward reflects an openness to experience and a lack of cautionary inhibition.
Conscientiousness: This trait is typically underdeveloped in children. A child’s impulse to run forward suggests lower conscientiousness, characterized by a lack of planning or consideration of future consequences, consistent with their cognitive developmental stage.
Extraversion: Extraversion is generally pronounced in children, as they are often more impulsive and enthusiastic. Running toward an uncertain situation aligns with extraverted traits—seeking stimulation and engagement with their surroundings, even if hazardous.
Agreeableness: While this trait varies among individuals, children are often less inhibited by social considerations under stress, suggesting agreeableness may be less influential in this context.
Neuroticism: Children generally have not yet developed the anxiety-driven self-awareness that characterizes higher neuroticism. Thus, their response may lack the worry or caution that would otherwise inhibit impulsive actions.
- Adults (Turning Back)
Openness: Adults generally moderate their openness with caution, which is seen in their decision to turn back rather than explore or take risks. This reflects a tempered openness that has matured into a balanced risk assessment.
Conscientiousness: Conscientiousness is strongly exhibited here, as adults are likely weighing their actions based on foresight, planning, and awareness of the potential consequences. The decision to turn back indicates a high degree of responsibility and self-regulation.
Extraversion: This trait plays a more nuanced role in adults. While they may still seek engagement and stimulation, in a dangerous situation, their extraversion is tempered by conscientiousness, guiding them toward calculated, less impulsive actions.
Agreeableness: Adults are more likely to consider the social and interpersonal implications of their actions, such as responsibilities toward others. This can foster a protective instinct, encouraging them to prioritize caution and safety.
Neuroticism: Adults may experience heightened stress responses in emergencies, contributing to neuroticism-driven vigilance. However, many adults learn to manage their stress to take swift, precautionary actions, such as turning back, rather than freezing or fleeing without direction.
- Older Adults (Freezing)
Openness: Openness often declines with age, as older adults tend to favor stability and routine over novel experiences. In a crisis, this lower openness can manifest as a tendency to avoid risk by remaining stationary, as freezing may feel safer than initiating an unknown action.
Conscientiousness: High conscientiousness is characteristic of older adults, manifesting in caution and carefulness. However, in high-stress situations, conscientiousness may be overridden by a physiological freeze response, as the older person may struggle to act quickly or decisively.
Extraversion: Extraversion often decreases with age, with older adults exhibiting less inclination for stimulation-seeking. Freezing in a crisis reflects a diminished drive to act or engage with the environment proactively.
Agreeableness: Agreeableness often remains stable or increases with age, reflecting a tendency to prioritize harmonious interactions and safety, though in a crisis, this trait may play a secondary role as immediate survival instincts dominate.
Neuroticism: Neuroticism, often heightened by the physical and cognitive limitations of aging, can lead to increased anxiety and fear in stressful situations. This heightened neuroticism may contribute to a freeze response, as stress and fear momentarily override the ability to take action.
Synthesizing the Big Five Traits Across Age-Based Reactions
Each group’s reaction to the threat reflects an interaction between their developmental stage, life experience, and personality traits as delineated by the Big Five. The impulsivity of children, rooted in high openness and low conscientiousness, aligns with running forward. Adults, displaying balanced conscientiousness and tempered openness, are inclined to turn back. Older adults, with lower extraversion and openness but heightened neuroticism, are predisposed to freeze. These tendencies illuminate how personality traits evolve and manifest under duress across the lifespan, shaping behavior in both predictable and adaptive ways.
What are the reasons Openness declines with age - the sense of own fragility, attained wisdom, or perhaps hormonal changes? #
The decline in openness with age is a nuanced interplay of physical, cognitive, and psychological factors, each reinforcing a more risk-averse and stability-oriented mindset. This shift is largely adaptive, reflecting both biological changes and accumulated life experience, and several mechanisms contribute to it:
Increased Awareness of Physical Vulnerability:
As people age, physical frailties become more pronounced, including reduced agility, slower reaction times, and increased susceptibility to injury or illness. This heightened awareness of one’s physical limits fosters caution and a preference for predictability, as taking risks feels inherently more dangerous. A sense of mortality often grows with age, prompting individuals to prioritize stability, safety, and the familiar over the novel or the uncertain. This leads to a natural reduction in openness, as exploration poses risks that become harder to justify with a keener awareness of one’s vulnerability.
Accrued Life Experience and Attained Wisdom:
With experience, people accumulate a repertoire of learned behaviors, values, and coping mechanisms that become reliable, making novelty seem less necessary. This “wisdom” often leads to the adoption of routines and habits that provide comfort and security, reducing the need to seek out new experiences. Older adults often find that the benefits of new experiences diminish relative to the familiar. Having already explored, taken risks, and faced setbacks, they may feel they’ve achieved a balance of knowledge and stability that minimizes the appeal of uncertain outcomes. This isn’t a complete shutdown of openness, but rather a reallocation of focus toward conserving energy for meaningful, rather than simply novel, experiences.
Cognitive and Perceptual Shifts:
Cognitive functions, especially those associated with processing speed and working memory, often decline with age. These changes can make adapting to new situations or learning complex new skills more demanding. As a result, novelty may seem cognitively taxing, leading older adults to prefer familiar environments and predictable routines.
Neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to reorganize itself, decreases with age. This change can affect openness by making it harder for older adults to adapt to new ideas or perspectives quickly. With a brain that is physiologically more “set,” there’s often a natural shift toward ingrained patterns rather than flexible experimentation.
Hormonal and Neurochemical Changes:
Hormones play a significant role in personality traits, with openness particularly influenced by neurotransmitters like dopamine, which is associated with reward-seeking and novelty. Dopaminergic activity tends to decrease with age, reducing the drive to seek new and stimulating experiences. The hormone oxytocin, often linked to social bonding, can also influence openness. With age, as individuals prioritize close, familiar relationships over expanding social networks, hormonal adjustments may reinforce a preference for existing connections and reduce openness to new ones.
Emotional Regulation and Stability-Seeking:
Emotional regulation typically improves with age, leading people to avoid situations that may disturb their well-being. Older adults often experience a “positivity effect,” focusing on emotionally meaningful experiences and minimizing potential stressors associated with novelty or risk. This reflects an intentional approach to life that prioritizes psychological stability and emotional satisfaction.
Rather than seeking stimulation from the outside world, older adults often shift toward introspection and self-reflection. This shift aligns with a reduced need for external novelty, as fulfillment is increasingly derived from within or from established relationships and interests.
Cultural and Social Expectations:
Cultural norms frequently reinforce age-associated roles and expectations, encouraging stability, tradition, and predictability in older adulthood. These societal messages can subtly or overtly encourage individuals to resist change and maintain familiar routines, particularly in the form of advice to “settle down” or “age gracefully.”
Synthesis: Adaptive Openness Reduction as a Life Strategy
The reduction in openness with age appears to be an adaptive, multifaceted response to the physiological and experiential realities of aging. This decline reflects a shift from novelty-seeking to stability-seeking, driven by a blend of physical vulnerabilities, hormonal adjustments, and the practical wisdom that values security and comfort over uncertainty. While openness doesn’t disappear, it becomes more selective, focusing on personally meaningful rather than externally novel pursuits, thus aligning with the aging individual’s broader goals of maximizing well-being, safety, and emotional stability.