There\u2019s a lot of disagreement around how to frame the last century\u2019s unprecedented increase in human lifespan. Is it a crisis or an opportunity? Will a \u201cgrey tsunami\u201d of incapacitated freeloaders sweep us off our feet, or will we tap into the social capital of millions more healthy, well-educated adults? Are longer lives a blessing or a curse? Experience and ideology shape the responses, of course, but there\u2019s one thing both liberals and libertarians can agree on. What single characteristic of these older Americans will make the most difference? Their health. Living longer looks a lot more attractive when it\u2019s uncoupled from cognitive and physical decline. It\u2019s a lot cheaper too: illness is expensive.<\/p>\n
Ask most people if they want to grow old, and they say yes. A qualified yes, that is\u2014\u201cas long as I\u2019ve got my health.\u201d But health is shaped by more than genes and behavior. The beliefs we\u2019ve assimilated about the nature and value of old age\u2014how ageist we are, in other words\u2014also play an important role. A growing body of evidence shows that attitudes towards aging have an actual, measurable, physical effect on how we age. There\u2019s no inherent reason for the effect to be negative; positive attitudes improve mental and physical function. But an ageist culture like this one equates aging with decline. Prejudices are drummed into us by the media and popular culture and go unexamined. Wrinkles are ugly. Old people are incompetent. It\u2019s sad to be old. When we internalize those falsehoods, it actually harms our health. <\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t New Age woo-woo. Over the last few decades, mainstream medicine has come to accept the existence of a powerful mind-body connection. Clinical trials have shown that psychological factors can play a major role in illnesses and chronic conditions, and that mind-body therapies can help people function better and enjoy life more. This has critical implications for how well we age. Obviously, aging is more than a mind-set, but it\u2019s increasingly apparent that attitudes are an important part of the equation. The way we internalize cues in the environment\u2014as abstract as the way older people are depicted in the media or as concrete as that emerging bald spot\u2014significantly affects our physical and psychological trajectories. <\/p>\n
Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer has done fascinating research in this domain. Her famous 1981 counterclockwise study \u201cteleported\u201d a group of 75- to 80-year-old men back in time during a five-day retreat. The subjects were told to imagine they were 55, to talk about that period in the present tense and to reflect on their lives when they were that age. Afterwards they looked an average of three years younger, their hearing and memory improved and some had less arthritis\u2014evidence of the physical effects of a mental activity. Psychologist Chris Kurby of Grand Valley State University described these findings by saying, \u201cIf we put our minds in a younger place, we may put our bodies in a younger place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yale University psychologist Becca Levy has developed a theory about how we come to embody stereotypes of aging: we assimilate them from the culture, they become part of our identity and this influences how our brains and bodies function.<\/p>\n
Levy\u2019s theory has four components:<\/p>\n