Running head: HEALTHY INTERPRETATIONS WITH HEALTHY AGING 1 Healthy Interpretations with Healthy Aging

This study examined the moderating roles of threat-salience and physical health on the relationship between age and threat interpretations. During an online study, participants (N=1352, ages 18-91) rated the likelihood of neutral and negative explanations of ambiguous physical (older adult-relevant), social (younger adult-relevant) and general (age-neutral) scenarios. Results were consistent with the hypothesis; with increasing age, individuals interpreted the physical threat as relatively more negative and the social threat as relatively less negative. For healthy individuals (defined as individuals not on medication), a significant correlation was found between increasing age and making less negative general scenario interpretations. In contrast, for unhealthy adults (defined as individuals taking medication) there was a nonsignificant trend between increasing age and making more negative interpretations of the general scenario. Results are discussed in light of the importance of the relationship between interpretation biases and anxiety, as well as theories of optimized emotional processing with age. HEALTHY INTERPRETATIONS WITH HEALTHY AGING