The older we get, the later we think ‘old age’ starts
Shifting ideas about what it means to be old, as well as our own situations, are leading us to postpone what we think of as ‘old age’.
Whether it's a big birthday, a creaky knee, or realising you have no idea who the latest TikTok star is, it's easy to feel like you're getting old. Most of the time, that isn't the case. But perceptions of old age are, in fact, pretty malleable. According to new research, as life expectancy increases, so too does our idea of when old age begins.
Writing in Psychology and Aging, Markus Wettstein and team explore how and when we perceive an age as 'old'. They find that perceptions of old age have changed over the decades, and can be subject to more personal factors, such as how lonely we are, our health, and our own age.
Looking at survey data from 14,056 participants aged 40 to 85 years old, all of whom were taking part in a 25-year, longitudinal study in Germany, the team found several factors which influenced when we perceive old age to start.
