Older people are happier - Study

Old age and happiness! Duo can’t come together, as everybody thinks about.

But, a new study discovered that while both older and younger people believe most people are happier in their youth, quite the opposite is true.

While many people may believe that young people are happier than older people, new research has shown that the opposite may be true. Researchers have found that while both older and younger people believe most people are happier in their youth, quite the opposite is true. In fact, people report that the older they get, they are more happy with their lives.

A team of researchers observed more than 540 adults, divided into two broad age groups- 21 to 40 or over 60. The participants were asked to rate or predict their own individual happiness on a scale of 1 to 10 at their current age, at age 30 and at age 70. They also had to rate how happy most other people are at those ages.

The study, performed by the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and the University of Michigan researchers, has found that older people are tend to “mis-remember” how happy they were as youths, just as youths “mis-predict” how happy or unhappy they will be in the their golden years.

In fact, the researchers came to know that both younger and older people think that overall, younger people are happier than older people. However in the study, the older participants reported a current level of happiness for themselves that was considerably higher than the self-rating made by the younger people.

Even, participants of all ages thought that the average 30-year-old would be happier than the average 70-year-old and that happiness would decline with age.
“The picture gets a little fuzzy at the extreme old age, but prior to the mid-70s we do see that they are reporting the greatest level of happiness,” said lead author Dr. Heather Lacey, Ph.D., a VA postdoctoral fellow and member of the U-M Medical School's Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine.

Dr. Lacey suggests from her research, which published in the June issue of the Journal of Happiness Studies, a major research journal in the field of positive psychology, that changes in life goals may be a major contributor to the level of satisfaction.

She said, “When we're younger, we seem to be more focused on learning new skills, achieving new successes, acquiring things,” and “As we get older, we seem to recognize that life is only going to go on so much longer, time is starting to run short, and so we start to shift our goals more to social relationships, and things that make us happy. We stop worrying about achieving, and start thinking about enjoying.”