When you think of an old person, what are the first five words or phrases that come to mind?
Don’t overthink it. Just write down, or make a mental note of, the first five things that come to mind.
Now, consider your list. Were the words positive or negative?
If you’re like most adults surveyed in the United States, your responses were predominately negative.
In survey after survey, Western-world responses lean toward the negative – like “slow,” “confused” and “feeble” – while responses from adults in Japan and some other Asian countries lean solidly toward the positive – like “wise,” “experienced” and “mature.”
Why is that? Does it matter? Could it be that positive images of aging contribute to Asian countries having the world’s top three longest life spans?
A new field of research, pioneered by Yale University Dr. Becca Levy, reveals how our mindset and beliefs shape our behaviors, our ability to heal and even our life span, in invisible but powerful ways.
“These two clashing visions reflect the vast range of predominate age beliefs in different cultures – beliefs that determine how we act toward older individuals, organize our living space, distribute health care, and form our communities,” Levy says.
Levy’s research looked at how to measure the impact of culture on the biology of aging. Confirmed by more than 400 studies conducted by scientists in five continents, the research revealed that many of the cognitive and physiological challenges we think of as linked to growing old – things like hearing loss and cardiovascular disease – are also the product of age beliefs absorbed from our social surroundings.
“Ultimately, these beliefs can also determine how older people think about themselves as well as how well they hear, remember and how long they live,” Levy says.
The research also demonstrated positive age beliefs can act as a buffer against developing dementia in people who carry the dreaded Alzheimer’s gene, APOE4. Fascinating stuff.
Beyond our personal beliefs about aging, implicit and structural ageism have a direct and consequential impact on our overall physical and mental health – and even our life span – according to this broad body of research.
Most of us would like to think we can think fairly and accurately about other people. However, ageist stereotyping often happens unconsciously. These unconscious negative age beliefs can result in an “implicit bias,” and automatically influence us to like or dislike certain groups of people and act accordingly.
Structural ageism happens when policies or practices of societal institutions, such as corporations and public entities, discriminate against older workers. Or when health systems allocate treatment of older adults differently than their younger counterparts – at times deeming scarce health care resources should be allocated to younger individuals rather than the aged or those with disabilities.
This implicit and structural ageism shows up in the pay scale for geriatricians (physicians trained in preventing and treating diseases in older adults) who are paid significantly lower wages than their pediatrician or even general practitioner counterparts. This demonstrates, with our health care dollars, a lesser value society places on the health and well-being of older adults.
Other examples include organizational policies that restrict board service to those younger than 75, or some other arbitrary number. Implying that at a certain age, older adults’ contributions of service are no longer valued.
Structural ageism shows up when housing developments do not include elevators and relegate resident with physical challenges to first-floor spaces. That limits the number of housing units available to older adults, and often the quality of those housing units, as upper-floor apartments often have the best green-space views.
When these lived experiences of societal ageism and negative age beliefs are internalized over time, Levy reports our quality, and even quantity, of life decreases.
One study in Ohio that tracked participants’ age beliefs starting at middle age demonstrated the impact age beliefs have on longevity. By overlaying data on participants’ age beliefs over time with death information, the results were startling. Participants with the most positive views of aging were living, on average, seven and a half years longer than those with the most negative views.
“Age beliefs stole, or added, almost eight years to their lives, conferring an even better survival advantage than low cholesterol, low blood pressure, low body mass index, or avoiding smoking,” Levy reports.
The good news is, since age beliefs are learned, they can be unlearned. Since structural and implicit biases are products of collective societal beliefs, we can change them.
It will take intentionality and determination, and will almost undoubtedly be uncomfortable for many. But the benefits are for all, because who doesn’t hope to live long enough to be among the “old” at some point?
Ageism is the one bias that negatively impacts us all. For the young, negative age stereotypes are an ageist bias against your future self. Ageist remarks and thoughts are being internalized to form your future identity. For the currently mature, your internalized negative age perceptions could be negatively impacting your health and cutting short your life.
It’s time to reframe the aging conversation. It’s time to embrace aging as something to look forward to, not fear. It’s time to cast a vision of the older population as a national treasure trove of wisdom, experience and an asset to tap, not as an age-wave to dread.
In doing so, we can build a society where people are valued for who they are, not judged by how old they are.
It’s time to actively root out ageism in all its forms. Whether you’re 18 or 80, the eventual length of your life could depend on it.