Social inappropriateness, executive control, and aging.

Age-related deficits in executive control might lead to socially inappropriate behavior if they compromise the ability to withhold inappropriate responses. Consistent with this possibility, older adults in the current study showed greater social inappropriateness than younger adults--as rated by their peers--and this effect was mediated by deficits in executive control as well as deficits in general cognitive ability. Older adults also responded with greater social inappropriateness to a provocative event in the laboratory, but this effect was unrelated to executive functioning or general cognitive ability. These findings suggest that changes in both social and cognitive factors are important in understanding age-related changes in social behavior.