Staying active

Inspirational Dr Margaret Fidler (pictured) completed her Ph.D. aged 78. Now she shares her latest reserach findings with us about 'Older people, squeamishness and respect for life':

'My questionnaire set out to examine whether grandparents were more or less squeamish than their grandchildren. 

I asked 101 grandparents and the same number of their student grandchildren what they would do about a live bee and a live spider on their windowsill.  There were three options to tick:

• kill the insect
• put it safely outside
• ask someone else to deal with it.

There was a big difference with the treatment of the spider. The students were considerably more squeamish, with forty-two of them saying they would seek someone else’s help. Grandparents took a far more hands-on approach with only eleven of them prepared to seek assistance.

This large difference could not have been caused by fear of personal harm.  In fact, bees are able to sting, while British spiders are harmless.  Clearly bees are more popular.  They have a friendlier shape, with a round, furry body, while spiders have long, straggly legs which can scuttle. Bees are honey-makers, and although spiders eat flies which can infect human food, this does not appear to count much in their favour. 

While the grandparents were more likely to save the bee’s life, the difference between them and their grandchildren was less than ten per cent.  There was, however, a considerable difference when it came to the spider.  Almost three-quarters of the grandparents would save its life, whereas under half of their grandchildren would do so. 

In a space left on the questionnaire for comments, two grandparents summed up the feelings of many others when they wrote, ‘All creatures are part of God’s creation’ and ‘Creation is not man’s to destroy lightly.’ 

It would seem that as we age we develop a greater respect for all life.'

Read more

To read more about Dr Fidler, why she decided to do a PhD later in life and her research click on the link below: