A study from Washington University in St. Louis reveals that as we get older, our minds tend to wander less. Even when older adults do daydream, they’re more inclined to be pleasantly distracted rather than caught up in worries.

In the study, researchers enlisted 175 adults aged 18 to 35 and 175 adults over 60. The participants were given a simple online task, like pressing the spacebar whenever an animal name popped up on the screen. Periodically, they were asked if they were focused on the task, their performance, or something unrelated. If their mind had wandered, they were asked whether their thoughts were negative, positive, or neutral.

Staying focused

The results showed that, compared to older adults, younger ones were more likely to be thinking about things unrelated to the task, which aligns with what earlier studies found. What makes this study unique is that it delved into the emotional side of these wandering thoughts. Younger adults, in contrast to their older counterparts, reported more fleeting thoughts that they considered negative.

“They might have been thinking, ‘Wow this is so boring, and I have other things to do today’ or ‘I have bills I need to pay,’” the researchers explain.

By contrast, the researchers found that older adults were far less likely to be distracted by negative thoughts. Having said that, when their minds did wander, those thoughts tended to span the entire emotional spectrum.

Passing thoughts

“There wasn’t a dominant emotional direction to their thoughts, yet, interestingly, older adults were just as likely as younger adults to report positive passing thoughts,” the researchers explain.

The study shows that older adults might be good at ignoring negative thoughts while doing a task. According to the researchers, our worries change as we get older.

The experiment suggested that younger adults with wandering minds might not do as well. They answered the prompts faster than older adults but made more mistakes. The authors believe that older adults generally performed better, probably because they were more motivated and focused.

The team wants to dig deeper into these findings with more research. They plan to do face-to-face tests to pick up on details about why minds wander and what happens, things that online tests might miss. If they understand better how minds wander, it could lead to new ways to help young adults shift their focus from negative thoughts back to what they’re doing.