Why Are Older People Happier Than Younger People?
Kurt Brouwer September 27th, 2007
Andrea Coombes at MarketWatch wrote an interesting piece on happiness and aging. It turns out that older people are happier than younger people by a significant margin.
The article is based on a study by HSBC Bank. By the way, HSBC is the modern incarnation of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. I guess I’m old fashioned, but I think Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank is a lot more memorable than HSBC, but that’s just me. Back to the story [emphasis added]:
‘Some people think those who are decades older have less reason to be joyful. But more people in their 60s and 70s report being happy than do those in their 40s, according to a recent survey conducted for bank HSBC of 21,000 people in 21 countries, spanning four age groups from 40 to 80.
Among U.S. respondents, 89% of those in their 70s and 87% of those in their 60s said they were happy most of the time in the previous week versus 78% of those in their 40s who said that.
What’s their secret to aging happily? Good health and a decent standard of living don’t hurt — but those factors don’t play as big a part as you might think, researchers say.
The truth is, people generally get happier as they age, said Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity and a professor of psychology at Stanford University.
“How often one feels sad, angry, disgusted, contemptuous — that frequency declines. And in addition to that, when negative emotions occur, they don’t last as long,” she said, citing research from her studies of people age 18 to 100-plus…’
This finding–that people generally get happier as they age–is a bit counterintuitive, although as I thought about it, the finding began to make more and more sense. As we age, we come to terms with our own pluses and minuses. We also see events and people in a long-term perspective, with fewer emotional peaks and valleys.
My two boys are 7 and 9 and they are continually striving to learn more, to do more and to fit in with their friends. When they are happy, their high point is generally pretty darn high–much higher than mine. However, when they are sad, they are very, very sad.
In that sense, if you charted my moods, it would be a relatively smooth line. Whereas their chart would have much higher peaks and valleys and lots more mood swings–daily, hourly or minute by minute. The article continues:
‘…Of course, individuals’ happiness varies. Studies of twins indicate your genes likely make you more or less optimistic, and the happiness of your parents affects you, said Peter Ubel, a professor of medicine and psychology at the University of Michigan, who has conducted research on happiness.
But unhappiness is generally not connected to aging, Ubel and other researchers say. “I know a lot of unhappy 80-year-olds, but if you look, on average there are a lot more grumpy young men than grumpy old men. We just don’t call them grumpy. We call them angry or irritable,” Ubel said…’
I thought this last point was a key insight into how language is used. In this case, unhappy old men are labelled ‘grumpy’ while unhappy young men are labelled angry or irritable. And, it is true that I have run into more angry young men than grumpy old men.
These points are very important. When time is short, people focus on well-being, but also on what is most important. And what is most important generally has to do with family and friends, with making a contribution to our community and with having good times.
‘…“When people perceive time is limited, they focus more on well-being,” she said. For instance, “they get rid of the riff-raff in their lives and select the people who are most important,” she said.
Others agreed. “You figure out what makes you angry and how to avoid that and what you can do in your life to adjust,” said Susan Turk Charles, associate professor in the University of California at Irvine’s department of psychology and social behavior. “People get better at doing this over time.”
What a great finding. I had not really thought about this until I read the article, but it really clicked when I did. People get better at doing this–that is living and managing moods–over time.
‘…If you connect happiness with a longer life span, try staying active. Longer lives are correlated with people continuing to engage in activities they feel are important, said Robert Butler, president of the International Longevity Center in New York.
It has to be “something that’s substantive and matters, such as taking care of a grandchild, volunteer activity three days a week, continuing to work rather than retiring,” Butler said…’
Finally, the article points out that there is a correlation between the type of life we lead and longevity. Doing activities that matter to you and that bring value to others is an important factor in living longer and living better.
Kudos to HSBC for doing this study in such a comprehensive manner–thousands of people over many countries.
- Personal Finance , Retirement
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Are you sure? Im in my mid 30’s and im so much happier than my dad who is 70! ha ha ha.
You see to my experience, my life had gotten better overtime and even if i come to a breakdown in financial, i had always been able to pick myself up sometimes even better than before. You see when one had youthness and health one has lots of energy to create our lives. Unlike my dad, who at 70 suddenly found himself getting old and is debt ladden, is full of anxiety & insecurity & to top it up his frail and weakening body makes him grumpy, irritated everyday. Though i cant seem to understand why he is so unhappy with life but i came to figure out that when you are that old you may not have the health and energy to recreate your life. Hence his daily mood swings. My only solution to myself for old age is this- prepare your retirement real early.You may not like to be labeled ‘the grumpy old man’ like my dad.
The study missed something important.
As many people get older, they don’t experience the same agony over those little “symbolic deaths” which plague the young. Who has time to be unhappy about minor things in their old age, when real death looms? Why worry about the small stuff when the coffin and the joyous eternal sleep is waiting?
[…] Why Are Older People Happier Than Younger People? […]
This easily could be an artifact … “the unhappy die younger than the happy”. Unhappiness is correlated with a lot of self-destructive behavior: alcoholism, drug abuse, sloth and so forth.
on the other hand ….
with maturity, persons improve coping skills to better address those issues that left unresolved are sources of unhappiness. Persons lower expectations with maturity; relative to the lowered standards happiness is obviously easier to achieve.