WEBVTT 00:00:00.642 --> 00:00:04.541 People are living longer and societies are getting grayer. 00:00:05.113 --> 00:00:06.841 You hear about it all the time. 00:00:06.985 --> 00:00:08.764 You read about it in your newspapers. 00:00:08.788 --> 00:00:11.134 You hear about it on your television sets. 00:00:11.158 --> 00:00:12.422 Sometimes, I'm concerned 00:00:12.446 --> 00:00:17.054 that we hear about it so much that we've come to accept longer lives 00:00:17.078 --> 00:00:20.911 with a kind of a complacency, even ease. 00:00:21.943 --> 00:00:26.225 But make no mistake, longer lives can -- 00:00:26.249 --> 00:00:32.132 and, I believe, will improve quality of life at all ages. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:33.696 --> 00:00:36.832 Now to put this in perspective, let me just zoom out for a minute. 00:00:37.824 --> 00:00:43.720 More years were added to average life expectancy in the 20th century 00:00:44.894 --> 00:00:51.801 than all years added across all prior millennia 00:00:51.825 --> 00:00:53.999 of human evolution combined. 00:00:55.275 --> 00:00:56.803 In the blink of an eye, 00:00:56.827 --> 00:01:00.199 we nearly doubled the length of time that we're living. 00:01:01.425 --> 00:01:04.728 So if you ever feel like you don't have this aging thing quite pegged, 00:01:04.752 --> 00:01:06.066 don't kick yourself. 00:01:06.090 --> 00:01:07.976 It's brand new. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:08.627 --> 00:01:12.778 And because fertility rates fell across that very same period 00:01:12.802 --> 00:01:15.298 that life expectancy was going up, 00:01:16.597 --> 00:01:22.188 that pyramid that has always represented the distribution of age in the population, 00:01:22.212 --> 00:01:27.238 with many young ones at the bottom winnowed to a tiny peak of older people 00:01:27.262 --> 00:01:29.499 who make it and survive to old age, 00:01:29.523 --> 00:01:33.393 is being reshaped into a rectangle. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:35.468 --> 00:01:37.276 And now, if you're the kind of person 00:01:37.300 --> 00:01:39.657 who can get chills from population statistics, NOTE Paragraph 00:01:39.681 --> 00:01:40.704 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:40.728 --> 00:01:42.522 these are the ones that should do it. 00:01:42.546 --> 00:01:43.976 Because what that means 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.840 is that for the first time in the history of the species, 00:01:47.864 --> 00:01:51.634 the majority of babies born in the developed world 00:01:51.658 --> 00:01:55.474 are having the opportunity to grow old. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:57.411 --> 00:01:58.976 How did this happen? 00:01:59.438 --> 00:02:03.446 Well, we're no genetically hardier than our ancestors were 10,000 years ago. 00:02:03.978 --> 00:02:08.290 This increase in life expectancy is the remarkable product of culture -- 00:02:08.822 --> 00:02:12.515 the crucible that holds science and technology 00:02:12.539 --> 00:02:17.975 and wide-scale changes in behavior that improve health and well-being. 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:25.443 Through cultural changes, our ancestors largely eliminated early death 00:02:25.467 --> 00:02:28.292 so that people can now live out their full lives. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:29.524 --> 00:02:32.469 Now there are problems associated with aging -- 00:02:32.493 --> 00:02:34.784 diseases, poverty, loss of social status. 00:02:34.808 --> 00:02:36.976 It's hardly time to rest on our laurels. 00:02:37.771 --> 00:02:39.847 But the more we learn about aging, 00:02:39.871 --> 00:02:43.910 the clearer it becomes that a sweeping downward course 00:02:43.934 --> 00:02:45.976 is grossly inaccurate. 00:02:46.954 --> 00:02:50.222 Aging brings some rather remarkable improvements -- 00:02:50.246 --> 00:02:52.976 increased knowledge, expertise -- 00:02:54.105 --> 00:02:58.475 and emotional aspects of life improve. 00:03:00.380 --> 00:03:03.739 That's right, older people are happy. 00:03:04.528 --> 00:03:08.126 They're happier than middle-aged people, and younger people, certainly. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:08.150 --> 00:03:09.332 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:09.356 --> 00:03:12.470 Study after study is coming to the same conclusion. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:12.494 --> 00:03:15.326 The CDC recently conducted a survey 00:03:15.350 --> 00:03:18.234 where they asked respondents simply to tell them 00:03:18.258 --> 00:03:21.373 whether they experienced significant psychological distress 00:03:21.397 --> 00:03:22.559 in the previous week. 00:03:22.583 --> 00:03:26.217 And fewer older people answered affirmatively to that question 00:03:26.241 --> 00:03:28.975 than middle-aged people, and younger people as well. 00:03:29.866 --> 00:03:32.831 And a recent Gallup poll asked participants 00:03:32.855 --> 00:03:37.341 how much stress and worry and anger they had experienced the previous day. 00:03:37.658 --> 00:03:41.787 And stress, worry, anger 00:03:42.231 --> 00:03:44.000 all decrease with age. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:45.607 --> 00:03:48.613 Now social scientists call this the paradox of aging. 00:03:48.637 --> 00:03:51.329 I mean, after all, aging is not a piece of cake. 00:03:52.091 --> 00:03:56.365 So we've asked all sorts of questions to see if we could undo this finding. 00:03:57.399 --> 00:04:02.825 We've asked whether it may be that the current generations of older people 00:04:03.341 --> 00:04:05.871 are and always have been the greatest generations. 00:04:06.609 --> 00:04:10.277 That is that younger people today may not typically experience 00:04:10.301 --> 00:04:12.629 these improvements as they grow older. 00:04:13.227 --> 00:04:14.551 We've asked, 00:04:14.575 --> 00:04:18.518 well, maybe older people are just trying to put a positive spin 00:04:18.542 --> 00:04:20.955 on an otherwise depressing existence. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:20.979 --> 00:04:22.726 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:22.750 --> 00:04:25.603 But the more we've tried to disavow this finding, 00:04:25.627 --> 00:04:28.125 the more evidence we find to support it. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:29.546 --> 00:04:31.881 Years ago, my colleagues and I embarked on a study 00:04:31.905 --> 00:04:34.993 where we followed the same group of people over a 10-year period. 00:04:35.017 --> 00:04:37.976 Originally, the sample was aged 18 to 94. 00:04:38.494 --> 00:04:41.833 And we studied whether and how their emotional experiences changed 00:04:41.857 --> 00:04:43.762 as they grew older. 00:04:43.786 --> 00:04:47.097 Our participants would carry electronic pagers 00:04:47.121 --> 00:04:48.622 for a week at a time, 00:04:48.646 --> 00:04:51.945 and we'd page them throughout the day and evenings at random times. 00:04:51.969 --> 00:04:53.759 And every time we paged them, 00:04:53.783 --> 00:04:55.835 we'd ask them to answer several questions -- 00:04:55.859 --> 00:04:58.924 "On a one to seven scale, how happy are you right now?" 00:04:58.948 --> 00:05:00.433 "How sad are you right now?" 00:05:00.457 --> 00:05:02.608 "How frustrated are you right now?" -- 00:05:02.632 --> 00:05:06.866 so that we could get a sense of the kinds of emotions and feelings they were having 00:05:06.890 --> 00:05:08.270 in their day-to-day lives. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:09.049 --> 00:05:12.343 And using this intense study of individuals, 00:05:12.367 --> 00:05:16.221 we find that it's not one particular generation 00:05:16.245 --> 00:05:18.506 that's doing better than the others, 00:05:18.530 --> 00:05:21.404 but the same individuals over time 00:05:21.428 --> 00:05:26.287 come to report relatively greater positive experience. 00:05:26.311 --> 00:05:30.749 Now you see this slight downturn at very advanced ages. 00:05:30.773 --> 00:05:32.410 And there is a slight downturn. 00:05:32.434 --> 00:05:37.423 But at no point does it return to the levels we see in early adulthood. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:38.628 --> 00:05:45.628 Now it's really too simplistic to say that older people are "happy." 00:05:46.669 --> 00:05:48.975 In our study, they are more positive. 00:05:49.828 --> 00:05:52.145 But they're also more likely than younger people 00:05:52.169 --> 00:05:54.342 to experience mixed emotions -- 00:05:54.366 --> 00:05:56.983 sadness at the same time you experience happiness; 00:05:57.007 --> 00:06:00.451 you know, that tear in the eye when you're smiling at a friend. 00:06:01.634 --> 00:06:06.277 And other research has shown that older people seem to engage with sadness 00:06:06.301 --> 00:06:07.707 more comfortably. 00:06:07.731 --> 00:06:10.615 They're more accepting of sadness than younger people are. 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:13.232 And we suspect that this may help to explain 00:06:13.256 --> 00:06:15.976 why older people are better than younger people 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.252 at solving hotly charged emotional conflicts and debates. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:26.286 Older people can view injustice with compassion, 00:06:26.960 --> 00:06:28.302 but not despair. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:29.359 --> 00:06:31.096 And all things being equal, 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:35.211 older people direct their cognitive resources, like attention and memory, 00:06:35.235 --> 00:06:37.976 to positive information more than negative. 00:06:38.616 --> 00:06:41.968 If we show older, middle-aged, younger people images, 00:06:41.992 --> 00:06:43.976 like the ones you see on the screen, 00:06:44.698 --> 00:06:49.324 and we later ask them to recall all the images that they can, 00:06:49.885 --> 00:06:52.244 older people, but not younger people, 00:06:52.268 --> 00:06:55.975 remember more positive images than negative images. 00:06:56.652 --> 00:07:00.790 We've asked older and younger people to view faces in laboratory studies, 00:07:00.814 --> 00:07:02.690 some frowning, some smiling. 00:07:02.714 --> 00:07:07.836 Older people look toward the smiling faces and away from the frowning, angry faces. 00:07:09.257 --> 00:07:14.365 In day-to-day life, this translates into greater enjoyment and satisfaction. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:16.533 --> 00:07:20.822 But as social scientists, we continue to ask about possible alternatives. 00:07:20.846 --> 00:07:24.500 We've said, well, maybe older people report more positive emotions 00:07:24.524 --> 00:07:26.976 because they're cognitively impaired. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.320 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:30.876 --> 00:07:32.107 We've said, could it be 00:07:32.131 --> 00:07:35.725 that positive emotions are simply easier to process than negative emotions, 00:07:35.749 --> 00:07:38.918 and so you switch to the positive emotions? 00:07:38.942 --> 00:07:41.077 Maybe our neural centers in our brain 00:07:41.101 --> 00:07:45.223 are degraded such that we're unable to process negative emotions anymore. 00:07:45.572 --> 00:07:47.081 But that's not the case. 00:07:47.614 --> 00:07:50.850 The most mentally sharp older adults 00:07:50.874 --> 00:07:53.976 are the ones who show this positivity effect the most. 00:07:54.949 --> 00:07:57.231 And under conditions where it really matters, 00:07:57.255 --> 00:07:59.783 older people do process the negative information 00:07:59.807 --> 00:08:01.976 just as well as the positive information. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:02.358 --> 00:08:04.321 So how can this be? 00:08:05.876 --> 00:08:07.849 Well, in our research, 00:08:07.957 --> 00:08:11.948 we've found that these changes are grounded fundamentally 00:08:11.972 --> 00:08:15.189 in the uniquely human ability to monitor time -- 00:08:15.213 --> 00:08:18.262 not just clock time and calendar time, but lifetime. 00:08:19.208 --> 00:08:21.226 And if there's a paradox of aging, 00:08:21.670 --> 00:08:24.672 it's that recognizing that we won't live forever 00:08:24.696 --> 00:08:28.953 changes our perspective on life in positive ways. 00:08:30.204 --> 00:08:35.010 When time horizons are long and nebulous, as they typically are in youth, 00:08:35.034 --> 00:08:36.976 people are constantly preparing, 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:40.755 trying to soak up all the information they possibly can, 00:08:40.779 --> 00:08:43.025 taking risks, exploring. 00:08:43.049 --> 00:08:45.992 We might spend time with people we don't even like 00:08:46.016 --> 00:08:48.115 because it's somehow interesting. 00:08:48.139 --> 00:08:50.335 We might learn something unexpected. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:50.359 --> 00:08:52.419 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:52.443 --> 00:08:53.976 We go on blind dates. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:57.253 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:57.277 --> 00:08:58.447 You know, after all, 00:08:58.471 --> 00:09:00.976 if it doesn't work out, there's always tomorrow. 00:09:02.121 --> 00:09:04.698 People over 50 don't go on blind dates. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:04.722 --> 00:09:11.722 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:12.014 --> 00:09:17.821 As we age, our time horizons grow shorter and our goals change. 00:09:18.342 --> 00:09:21.334 When we recognize that we don't have all the time in the world, 00:09:21.358 --> 00:09:24.205 we see our priorities most clearly. 00:09:24.229 --> 00:09:26.950 We take less notice of trivial matters. 00:09:26.974 --> 00:09:28.475 We savor life. 00:09:29.140 --> 00:09:30.758 We're more appreciative, 00:09:30.782 --> 00:09:32.537 more open to reconciliation. 00:09:33.461 --> 00:09:36.291 We invest in more emotionally important parts of life, 00:09:36.315 --> 00:09:38.976 and life gets better, 00:09:39.424 --> 00:09:41.976 so we're happier day-to-day. 00:09:42.305 --> 00:09:44.245 But that same shift in perspective 00:09:44.269 --> 00:09:48.664 leads us to have less tolerance than ever for injustice. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:50.061 --> 00:09:51.636 By 2015, 00:09:52.137 --> 00:09:54.775 there will be more people in the United States 00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:58.136 over the age of 60 than under 15. 00:10:00.019 --> 00:10:04.181 What will happen to societies that are top-heavy with older people? 00:10:05.363 --> 00:10:08.655 The numbers won't determine the outcome. 00:10:09.210 --> 00:10:10.694 Culture will. 00:10:12.203 --> 00:10:15.308 If we invest in science and technology 00:10:15.332 --> 00:10:19.322 and find solutions for the real problems that older people face 00:10:20.184 --> 00:10:26.281 and we capitalize on the very real strengths of older people, 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:32.710 then added years of life can dramatically improve quality of life at all ages. 00:10:33.897 --> 00:10:38.364 Societies with millions of talented, emotionally stable citizens 00:10:38.388 --> 00:10:43.315 who are healthier and better educated than any generations before them, 00:10:43.339 --> 00:10:47.165 armed with knowledge about the practical matters of life 00:10:47.189 --> 00:10:51.478 and motivated to solve the big issues 00:10:52.296 --> 00:10:57.063 can be better societies than we have ever known. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:59.290 --> 00:11:02.726 My father, who is 92, likes to say, 00:11:03.778 --> 00:11:07.347 "Let's stop talking only about how to save the old folks 00:11:07.450 --> 00:11:11.964 and start talking about how to get them to save us all." NOTE Paragraph 00:11:13.837 --> 00:11:15.277 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:15.301 --> 00:11:18.095 (Applause)