X-Message-Number: 33009
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 11:04:54 +0000 (UTC)
From: Melody Maxim <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #33004 Happiness Increases with Age


In Message #33004, David Stodolsky wrote: "We know that older people are on the 
whole happier. Whether this is genetically programmed or not isn't clear. 
However, they don't stop fearing death, they just stop thinking about it." 


And someone complained, "Wow. Huge generalizations without any supporting 
source."


There are plenty of supporting sources for David's comment, including many 
recently reported studies. I've happened upon several such articles, (just 
reading about health, in general), in recent years. Just google the phrase 
happiness and aging, and many sources for David's "generalizations" will be 
found. Here are just a few:


"Our findings suggest that it doesn't matter when you were born," Carstensen 
said. "In general, people get happier as they get older." (From Stanford 
University News, this week.) 
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/october/older-happy-study-102710.html


"Happiness May Come With Age, Study Says" (From the NY Times, May 2010) 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/health/research/01happy.html?_r=1#


"Older people are more likely to be happy...those 65 and older have a Happiness 
Index score of 44%, one of the highest of all demographic groups." 
http://www.moneyandhappiness.com/blog/?p=942


ScienceDaily (Feb. 18, 2008) " "Growing old is a happier experience than many of
us imagine - that's according to the findings of a study conducted at Queen's 
University, Belfast, on behalf of the Changing Ageing Partnership (CAP)."


"Luckily, since 1972 sociologists have been surveying over 50,000 interviews in 
something called the "General Social Survey." Researchers can add questions, and
questions are repeated for decades. The survey is open to the public (you can 
analyze the data yourself online). It is the source of lots of information about
our society and perfect for a study on happiness over time. By comparing 
differently aged individuals over time within the same year, researchers were 
able to get around some of these problems. What they found is that happiness 
increases with age."
http://longevity.about.com/od/mentalfitness/a/aging_happiness.htm

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