Gerontology & Geriatric Research

Abstract

Assessment of Gullibility of Older Patients is Important for their Safety and Health

Andrzej Brodziak, Renata Zlotkowska and Alicja Różyk-Myrta

The authors consider the state of contemporary knowledge related to notion of gullibility and methods of its assessment. They emphasize that there is almost no publication on this subject in medical literature.

Increased gullibility makes a person vulnerable to manipulations. The gullible people are often victims of scam. Elderly people are particularly vulnerable to scam and fraud. Thus, the frequency and intensity of gullibility and the ways to its assessment are in particular important in the field of geriatric care.

The authors quote some selected items of the proposed self-report measure of gullibility, elaborated recently for evaluations in general population. They argue also that the assessment of the prevalence of gullibility is important for the state of public mental health, because widespread gullibility facilitate manipulations of members of a community and promotions of xenophobic, nationalistic attitudes and populist promises. Then the authors discuss the necessary investigations on the methods of assessment of gullibility among elderly and on the spread of this trait of personality in different age groups of patients.