Old People Are Not Only Wiser Than You, They’re Happier Too

New research shows that older people are not only wiser than younger people (which we already knew), they tend to be happier too :

Contrary to largely gloomy cultural perceptions, growing old brings some benefits, notably emotional and cognitive stability. Laura Carstensen, a Stanford social psychologist, calls this the “well-being paradox.” Although adults older than 65 face challenges to body and brain, the 70s and 80s also bring an abundance of social and emotional knowledge, qualities scientists are beginning to define as wisdom. As Carstensen and another social psychologist, Fredda Blanchard-Fields of the Georgia Institute of Technology, have shown, adults gain a toolbox of social and emotional instincts as they age. According to Blanchard-Fields, seniors acquire a feel, an enhanced sense of knowing right from wrong, and therefore a way to make sound life decisions.

Somewhere an 87 year old man is saying to himself, “You know, when I was 65, I didn’t have a clue what life was about . . . ”

(Via: Gene Veith