Older but wiser? Effects of age on political cognition

Abstract

In experimental studies of voter's information processing, Lau and Redlawsk (2006) found one control variable to have pervasive effects in their analyses: age. Age was associated with less information search, less memory, less accurate memory, and a lower probability of making a correct vote. Reexamining those experimental studies, we find that inexperience with computers and slower manual dexterity are both associated with less information access, but controlling on these factors, age continues to have a strong negative effect on information processing. In other more familiar situations, however, political knowledge can accumulate with greater experience, as it does with memories for actual presidential candidates and political parties, although this effect reverses at very advanced ages. Age has minimal effects on the probability of correct voting until the mid-60s, but we observe very sharp drop-offs thereafter. The normative implications of these findings for democratic representativeness are discussed.