Small-town America has a life-enhancing lesson for people who are at least 50 years old: Individuals, those in the heartland’s middle class, anyway, who have a positive outlook about aging live around 7 years longer than those who take a dim view of their prospects as seniors.
“People who have positive views about themselves as they age somehow cope with society’s negative attitudes toward the elderly,” says psychologist Becca R. Levy of Yale University. “These individuals’ positive self-perceptions also can prolong their lives.”
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.