This study documents a great lesson of some sort that was sought and perhaps learned:
“Age-related differences in judgments of inappropriate behavior are related to humor style preferences,” Jennifer Tehan Stanley, Monika Lohani, Derek M. Isaacowitz, Psychology and Aging, Vol 29(3), Sep 2014, 528-541. (Thanks to investigator Erwn Kompanjie for bringing this to our attention.) The authors explain:
“Older adults did not show this pattern, suggesting that they did not find the inappropriate {video} clips funny. Additionally, young adults endorsed a more aggressive humor style than middle-aged and older adults and aggressive humor style endorsement mediated age differences in social appropriateness ratings. Results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms”
Co-author Stanley [pictured here], at the University of Akron, Ohio, is currently working on another mystery, which will be documented in the study:
Stanley, J. T., Zhang, X., Fung, H. H., & Isaacowitz, D. M. (in press). Cultural differences in gaze and emotion recognition: Americans contrast more than Chinese. Emotion.