Reader's Digest - USA (2019-08)

andagainthatsubjectswhoholdthe

mostnegativeviewofageing– orwho

haveassimilatedpessimisticstereo-

typesoftheelderly– payforthatbias

ona physicallevel.

Lev yhasbeenexploringthetop-

icforthelast 20 years.In2002,her

mostwell-knownstudyexamined

datacollectedinthemid-1970sfrom

atowninOhio.Residentsover 50

wereaskedtorespondtostatements

aboutageing.“Asyougetolder,you

arelessuseful”(yesorno);“AsI get

older,thingsare(better,worseorthe

same)asI thoughttheywouldbe.”

WhenLevyevaluatedthemortality

datafromstudysubjects,shemade

a startlingdiscovery:thosewiththe

mostnegativeviewsofageingdied,on

average,7.6yearsyoungerthanthose

withthemostpositiveones.Infact,

shefoundthatbeingageistinfluenced

lifespanmorethangender,incidence

oflonelinessoramountofexercise.

Therewasn’tanobviousexplana-

tionfortheageismeffect,butsince

thenumberonekillerofpeoplein

thatagegroupiscardiovasculardis-

ease,Lev ywonderedifthisattitude

stressestheheart,anddecidedtotest

thathypothesis.

InherlabatYale,Lev yhad 54

participantsbetweentheagesof 62

and 82 takemathsandverbaltests

undera tighttimelimit.Beforethey

began,thesubjectswere‘primed’

witheither positive ornegative

stereotypesofageing:wordswere

f lashed on a screen too quickly for

W

hat weask Goog-

leaboutmostfre-

quently can eas-

ily be discovered

byseeinghowthe

searchengineautofillsthebegin-

ningofa statementorquestion

we’vetypedin.Thesetopresultsare

also,then,a snapshotofwhatother

inquiringmindsprivatelythinkof

thesubjectthat’sjustbeenraised.

In 2013,social scientists from

theCentrefortheStudyofGroup

ProcessesattheUniversityofKentin

theUKexploreda specificcollective

biasbytyping“oldpeopleshould”

intothesearchbar.

“Oldpeopleshouldnotdrive,”read

thetopresult.

And,moredisconcertingly,the

secondmostpopularwas:“Oldpeo-

pleshoulddie.”

Thesetroubling findingsindi-

cateoursociety’sindictmentofthe

elderly.Butalso,ona deeperlevel,

they’rea ref lectionofourviewson

theageingprocessitself.Thecul-

turalmessagethathasclearlybeen

swallowedhook,lineandsinker:be

afraid,beveryafraid,ofgettingold.

Asotherresearchershavefound,

there’sa karmicironyatthecentre

ofthiskindofthinking.Holding

negativeopinionsofageing,they’ve

concluded,makespeopleagemore

qu ick l y.

BeccaLev y,a professorofepidemi-

olog yandpsycholog yatYale’sSchool

ofPublicHealth,has found again

READER’S DIGEST

90 Augus t 2019