Longevity has benefits like surviving the adversities of life, gaining experience, and maybe even becoming wise. Research shows older people are happier overall and focus on more positive things than negative. This is thought to be because youth tends to focus on achievements like building a career. Older people often shift their focus to emotionally based activities like spending more time with family and friends and having the knowledge of your life achievements. It’s also helpful to stay active.
Beliefs can change how we experience the world. Beliefs can also have an effect on aging. For example, in 1975 Levy studied people who had positive and negative attitudes about aging. She recorded who agreed and disagreed with the statement:
“Things keep getting worse as I get older.” She later checked the mortality data (in 1998) and found that people who had positive attitudes about aging had lived an average of 7.5 years longer than those with negative attitudes toward aging.
