Like a fine wine, life seems to get better with age, according to a newly released cross-cultural study. The study, conducted by researchers at Warwick University, included 10,000 participants from the United Kingdom and the U.S. who completed a survey on age and happiness. It revealed that happiness tends to increase quite significantly for the over-50 crowd. Expected barriers to happiness, like being overweight, having a BMI of higher than 30, or any other mild physical deterioration, had no bearing on people’s level of happiness.
A variety of factors were used to determine the participants’ physical health, mental health, social life, and pain level. The lead author of the study, Saverio Stranges, PhD, explained, “It’s obvious that people’s physical quality of life deteriorates as they age, but what is interesting is that their mental well-being doesn’t also deteriorate – in fact it increases.”
The study, which also looked at issues related to sleep (six to eight hours per night appears to be the ideal, it concluded), showed that one of the main reasons those over 50 might be happier is because these individuals exhibit lowered expectations that lead to less disappointment. Stranges explained, “It could also be due to a lowering of expectations from life, with older people less likely to put pressure on themselves in the personal and professional spheres.” Stranges also suggests that as a person ages, they are better able to cope with disappointment and stress. He pointed to previous research that showed older people tend to have internal mechanisms to better deal with hardship or negative circumstances than those who are younger.
The happiness curve is in the shape of a U – highest in youth and again in old age with the lowest point being in between (around age 45), when levels of depression are typically at their highest. By the time people are in their 50s, happiness is on the increase, and for those in reasonable physical health, happiness can be as high at age 70 as it was at 20.
Research previously completed at the University of Warwick by Andrew Oswald confirmed that the U-shape curve with regard to happiness was consistent across cultures, even in undeveloped areas of the world. Oswald explains that the U-shaped curve is consistent because regardless of where or how one lives, an individual experiences the same adaptation to strengths and weaknesses.
The association between older people and lowered expectations makes a lot of sense to me. After graduating college, there is the expectation that you’ll find a great job, finally start making money, and start on your path to success, and then later in life, there’s the stress of dealing with a family and work simultaneously. Also, I wonder if one the reasons happiness starts to increase again when people are in their 50s is the fact that retirement seems a whole lot closer!