Poor old people. There's just so much out there for them not to get: Digipets, those shoes with the wheels, Gwen Stefani. Okay, maybe I'm kind of an old person too, but not as old as the people who don't get why The Office is funny. A team of mean scientists rounded up about sixty people over the age of sixty and made them watch a beloved British sitcom. Awkwardness ensued:
Psychologists found that older people were less adept at spotting Brent's gaffes, which include him abandoning a wheelchair-bound woman in a stairwell during a fire alarm and failing to realize he cannot dance.
Compared to younger participants, the older volunteers were also less able to identifying the varying emotions of the other characters.
Ted Ruffman, associate professor of psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said the implication was that the those who found faux pas difficult to spot were more likely to make them.
So there you have it: scientific proof that old people aren't as hip as you. Are you happy, Dr. Ruffman? Do you just feel so cool now?
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