At what age is a person likely to be perceived as “old”? According to you ?

We know that trying to guess the age of a colleague, an acquaintance or a distant family member often amounts to venturing into a minefield. Yes, old age is a sensitive subject. Especially since, from one person to another, the criteria for categorizing “old” or “old” vary greatly depending on the age of the person making this judgment. Concretely, what does “being old” mean? Isn’t it wiser to adhere to the adage that “age is in the head?” An international team of researchers from Stanford University, Berlin and Luxembourg have seriously looked into the question. They interviewed 14,056 people residing in Germany, born between 1911 and 1974.

At what age are we old?

To assess the participants’ perception of old age, the authors of the study asked a very simple question: “At what age can we say that someone is old?” “We found that at the age of 64, the average perception of the onset of old age is around 75 years old.“, note the researchers, who recently published the results of their work in the journal Psychology and Aging. At 74 years old, they declared that old age began at 76.8 years old. “On average, perception of the onset of old age increased by about one year for every four to five years of actual aging‘”, notes the study.

In particular, the researchers observed the evolution of the participants’ perception of old age as they grew older. They answered the survey questions up to eight times over a period of 25 years. The researchers noticed that the younger generations surveyed perceived the onset of old age later. For example, when people born in 1911 were 65 years old, they considered that old age started at the age of 71. At the same age, those born in 1956 established their average at 74 years.

Results which can be explained by the increase in life expectancy of populations and the decline in retirement. “Some aspects of health have improved over time, so people of a certain age who were considered old in the past may no longer be so today”observes Markus Wettstein, researchers at Humboldt University (Berlin) and co-author of the study, in a statement.

A trend that may not last

An encouraging sign that could portend an end to ageism? Not necessarily according to Markus Wettstein: “It is unclear to what extent the tendency to delay old age reflects a tendency to have a more positive view of older people and aging, or rather the opposite – perhaps the onset of old age is postponed because that people consider old age to be an undesirable state“, he analyzes. Before adding: “The trend toward postponing old age is not linear and will not necessarily continue in the future“. Researchers also note that the later perception of old age has slowed down over the last two decades.

Furthermore, the study notes that women set the threshold for old age on average two years later than men. The researchers also found that feeling older, lonelier, being more prone to chronic illnesses and perceiving oneself in less good health are factors which, all combined, can on the contrary promote the perception of an earlier onset of old age.

The authors of this work wish to extend their research, particularly to non-Western countries, in order to understand how perceptions of aging vary depending on ethnic origin and culture.