Being Mortal

(Martin Jones) #1

forabrighterfuture.Youseektoplugintobiggerstreams
ofknowledgeandinformation.Youwidenyournetworks
offriendsandconnections,insteadofhangingoutwith
your mother.Whenhorizons are measuredin decades,
which mightas wellbe infinity to humanbeings, you
most desire all that stuff at the top of Maslow’s
pyramid—achievement,creativity,andotherattributesof
“self-actualization.”Butasyourhorizonscontract—when
you see the future ahead of you as finite and
uncertain—your focus shifts to the here and now, to
everyday pleasures and the people closest to you.


Carstensengave her hypothesis theimpenetrablename
“socioemotionalselectivitytheory.”Thesimplerwayto
sayitisthatperspectivematters.Sheproducedaseriesof
experimentsto testtheidea. Inone, sheand her team
studied a group of adult men ages twenty-three to
sixty-six.Someofthemenwerehealthy.Butsomewere
terminallyillwithHIV/AIDS.Thesubjectsweregivena
deck of cards with descriptions of people they might
know, ranging in emotional closeness from family
memberstotheauthorofabookthey’dread,andthey
wereaskedtosortthecardsaccordingtohowtheywould
feelaboutspendinghalfanhourwiththem.Ingeneral,
theyoungerthesubjectswere,thelesstheyvaluedtime
withpeopletheywereemotionallyclosetoandthemore
theyvaluedtimewithpeoplewhowerepotentialsources
ofinformationornew friendship.However, amongthe
ill,theagedifferencesdisappeared.Thepreferencesofa
youngpersonwithAIDSwerethesameasthoseofanold
person.

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