Our Perceptions of Older Adults Who Do Not Act Their Age

"Objective biological age is defined as the time passed since the person was born. On the other hand, there is the subjective or felt age. Two people with the same birth year do not necessarily need to have the same felt age. Sometimes people in their 30s say things like “I feel like a 70-year-old,” but there are also older adults who feel much younger on the inside than their biological age would suggest."

"While research has shown that staying young at heart at age 65 or older is great for both health and psychological well-being, it is less clear whether the public has a positive or negative view of people who feel much younger than they are. While younger people may celebrate older adults who stay young at heart, there may also be backlash because these people do not “act their age.”"

"Younger adults may feel that some behaviors typically associated with being younger may be “cringeworthy” for someone over 65. Therefore, more research is needed on how younger people perceive older people who are young at heart. A new study on the public perception of people who stay young at heart focuses on these attitudes."

"Older people young at heart are seen positively, as long as they do not violate age stereotypes too much. The study investigated the public’s perception of older people young at heart by examining reactions to older adult targets who had a younger felt age than their biological age."

Objective biological age and subjective felt age can differ, with some older adults reporting much younger felt ages. Research has linked feeling young at heart in later life to health and psychological well-being, but public reactions to people who do not “act their age” are less clear. A study in Psychology and Aging examined how younger and middle-aged adults respond to older adult targets whose felt age was younger than their biological age. Reactions depended on how much the targets violated age stereotypes. Older adults who feel young at heart were generally evaluated positively, provided the deviation from stereotypes was not too large.

Read at Psychology Today