In my experience, old age only amplifies person's traits - if you were nice, you are going to be extra nice because of all the stress leaving your day to day. If you were a cunt, you are going to be extra cunty because now you will be blaming people left and right for all the errors in your life. That's my experience though.

Some get better, some get worse. You really can't generalize this. A friend of mine used to say that "we have to ditch the wise elder, because some people accumulate stupidity with age instead of wisdom"

I've become MUCH more of a twat as I get older/ now that I'm over 40....

I just don't have patience for the sillyness anymore. You wanna be a unicorn furry? Sure, whatever, I dgaf just gtfo my way so I can go about my life without your bullshit interrupting me. You wanna spend all your time talking about immigrants or your culture, i'm going to walk away....if you follow and annoy me as that type tends to do, i'm going to take the gloves off and bury your stupid ass with facts based in the reality you insist on avoiding.

From what I’ve seen it’s a bell curve most of the time. People grow up and stop being little twats and eventually get to the point where they start to become big twats.

Depends, this really depends on what exactly you consider being a twat, how old is the person in question and what kind of people they surround themselves with/what sorts of experiences they go through.

I've seen people mature tremendously and they were cases I considered totally hopeless. In contrast I've also seen people who appeared to have their sht together, suddenly flop in the most stupid of ways.

It’s usually kind of a U with the top sections being comprised of very young and very old people with the kind of limited intelligence and suicidal bravery to not believe that their actions have consequences, and then generally mellowed out, moderately reasonable, people in the middle. YMMV though.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Some great comments below, but i also wanted to add that i think it depends on how open and honest one is. For example, it happens quite frequently that i change my view on something, because someone (usually one of my adult kids) points out certain things that i didn't know or thought about. And then i can just apologize and tell them they are right. It keeps me humble and open to other viewpoints or scientific facts that i didn't know or consider. If someone just kindly points something out to me, that makes it easy to apologize. But if people are hostile and tell you you're wrong in an aggressive way, then it would be pretty hard to admit you hadn't thought of that.

But from what i see, there are a lot of people who just don't want to seem dumb, or are extremely set in their ways, and they will never admit that they were wrong or that there are different ways to see or understand something. Rather, they become angry, or grumble, or change the subject.

I'm in my late 30s.

No. People who are twats just become bigger twats as they age. People who are not-twats remain not twats.

Some people become twats because they become bitter and angry at the world for not giving them what they think they 'deserve'.

No. Yes.

Find the non-twatty people in your life and ride out the rest of it.

In my experience, the majority is great. The problem is that the loudest and most intrusive ones monopolize all the nearby attention.

My recommendation would be to find some quiet third places in which to seek out people you enjoy being around.

Some people become more, some people become less. It really depends on the person I guess.

cut the twats out of your life, be unbothered and moisturized in your own lane

Hey pal, maybe it's you.

Less of a twat, but more cranky.

It really just depends on the person, and how introspective they are throughout their lifetime. Some people get worse, some people get better. Events can happen that shapes a person's trajectory in one way or another.

I think people become more dead set in their views but less likely to be outright assholes about them. I think its a combination of lack of energy to be a dick and a dwindling social circle focused on quality relationships over quantity.

Some people will always be assholes though, but the fast majority don't have character disorders.

Yes until 70ish then some go full on shit head.

Less flexible, but with a better understanding that most people are, so not as loud with opinions. Thats sort of less twaty.

Yes they do.

I would sure hope so. If I look at myself (since that's where I have context) I'd say yes. I think a lot of the shittiness in people's personalities stems from trying to meet their needs (some of them unreasonable) and competing with everyone else to get them. That's a very me versus you mentality which leads to aggression and forms bad personality traits.

I'd like to say that everyone begins to understand wants versus needs after a few decades, and settles down into a pattern of contentment rather than resentment.

That's just not true though, is it?

The existence of both "Boomers" and the "Me Generation" is enough evidence to prove that it's a solid "sometimes"

Everyone get more softy when about to die or even when understanding the vulnerability to not be able to make it alone. Age dosnt matter. Is about experience.

People are individuals, all going through their own journeys. You might grow and change for the better if you're able to figure out how to be the best you, or you might change for the worse if made bitter by a life where it feels like no one is on your side and you have to take your due since it will never be given.

The important thing is: (1) People are twats for a reason, and (2) You can't fix those reasons for other people and make them less twatty, so the only thing you can control is how you handle less than ideal interactions. (Tip: most well-adjusted people don't jump to "lose hope in humanity"; the fact that you have means there's work you can do here.)