By Julie E 
Photo Credit ( freepik )
An old proverb states that “you are as young as you feel.” And there’s even a term for that in psychology. It’s referred to as subjective age.
That proverb also has some validity. Subjective age is a reliable indicator of both physical and psychological well-being, according to research. The common consensus is that people who feel younger than they actually are are generally in better health than people who feel older than they actually are.
Growing Older Is Just a Number
Psychologists refer to this as subjective age bias when an individual reports feeling younger than their true age. According to some academics, one way to combat age discrimination is through subjective age prejudice. Older adults may be able to escape some of the negative social effects of being older, such being turned down for jobs or excluded from particular social groups, by acting and feeling younger than they actually are.
Social comparison can sometimes take the form of subjective age prejudice. To assess our place in society, we measure ourselves against people who are similar to us. By comparing oneself to other people her age, a 60-year-old who feels and looks like she’s 50 can increase her self-esteem. She concludes, “They’re old, but not me,” as a result.
People differ greatly in a wide range of attributes. Some people have undoubtedly always felt younger than they actually are. There would also have been those who didn’t feel their age.
In a new paper published in the journal Psychological Science, psychologist Markus Wettstein and colleagues at Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany) note that there is some data that suggests elderly adults today feel younger than ever. Their study set out to ascertain whether subjective age bias was, in fact, increasing with a large sample size, and it also sought to investigate potential explanations for this trend.
Sensationally youthful
The researchers examined information gathered from about 15,000 German men and women between the ages of 40 and 85 for this study. These information had been gathered for a more extensive research project on aging in Germany. The researchers recorded each participant’s birth year, chronological age, subjective age, and many aspects of their lifestyle and health in order to evaluate their theories.
The findings demonstrated that there was a sizable disparity in the subjective ages at each birth year. In other words, some people perceive themselves as younger than they actually are, while others perceive themselves as older. This finding was not surprising; it was exactly what the researchers had anticipated.
Nonetheless, the researchers postulated that there has historically been a rise in subjective age prejudice. That is, they hypothesized that, compared to earlier decades, older adults today would feel even younger. The participants were split up into three cohorts by the researchers: those born in the years 1911–1935, 1936–1951, and 1952–1974, in order to test this hypothesis.
The researchers discovered that, in fact, subjective age bias has grown with each succeeding cohort. Let’s use 65 as an example of our benchmark. The 1911–1935 cohort’s typical respondent stated that they felt on average five years younger than their actual age. The average perceived age bias for those in the 1936–1951 group was eight years. Furthermore, on average, participants in the youngest cohort—those born between 1952 and 1974—said they felt 11 years younger than their true age.
The Secrets to a Healthy Old Age
Why do older individuals feel younger than they did a generation ago? Wettstein and his associates explored a number of options.
As we’ve already mentioned, age discrimination is one explanation. Today’s world is infatuated with youth. There may be a tendency to pass for younger than oneself, especially for older adults who don’t appear their age.
Acting younger than your actual age has a trade-off, as the researchers point out: you might be able to escape age discrimination. However, you also run the risk of missing out on important social opportunities with your contemporaries, who are presumably older than you.
Alternatively said, the average health of elderly adults nowadays is better than it was in earlier decades. One significant factor is the decline in smoking rates over time, which has had a significant effect on general health. An further factor contributing to the notable rise in life expectancy over the past century is our improved healthcare system.
But one part of the data astonished the experts. In particular, they had anticipated that individuals in their late senior years would exhibit little to no subjective age prejudice. This is due to a phenomena called “manufactured survival,” when individuals with poor health—despite having a low quality of life—live longer thanks to medical interventions.
However, that was not the researchers’ discovery. Conversely, when people became older, subjective age bias become more pronounced. For example, those who were born later in the first cohort (1911–1935) and are currently in their 90s reported an average subjective age of only 78. This implies that, at least for the study participants, manufactured survival is not a problem.
The study’s drawback, as noted by the researchers, is that all of the participants were residents of Germany, a wealthy nation with universal healthcare and a robust social safety net. This implies that less developed nations might not be able to use the existing findings. However, the findings do indicate that you should expect to feel younger than your actual age long into your senior years provided you’re financially secure and in generally good health.