I did door to door charity fundraising and there's a more straightforward reason why the people that engage tend to be the elderly: they're in all day (and quit

I did door to door charity fundraising and there's a more straightforward reason why the people that engage tend to be the elderly: they're in all day (and quite likely to be bored enough to talk to strangers on doorsteps even if or especially if their mental acuity is great). Obviously it varies: at the other end of the spectrum I suspect people calling random mobile numbers pretending to be Microsoft get most of their "business" from a small number of elderly people even though they're least likely to answer the phone.