October 08, 2008
Cut the sweetie
The Daily Mail reports Talking to old people like children cuts eight years off their lives, says Yale study. Previous reports have shown that infantilized speaking to elderly makes them resistive to care (!) And elderly with positive self-perceptions of ageing lived 7.5 years longer than those with less positive perceptions. I guess the Mail story is based on a continuation of this longitudinal study.
If these findings are true, speaking down to people is more dangerous than smoking.
Now, given current attitudes to smoking, this suggests that speaking down to people or otherwise annoying them must be regarded as a public health hazard. Maybe we should first ban it in public buildings. We should tax people who cannot resist saying "sweetie" (or arrest them for assault?). And nobody is allowed to use babyspeak to anybody below 18.
Posted by Anders3 at October 8, 2008 06:51 PM