TED | 老年人更快乐

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老年人更快乐

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Laura Carstensen

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心理 技能 TED 演讲

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在20世纪，我们的寿命增加了前所未有的年数，但生活质量是否也一样好呢?令人惊讶的是,是的!心理学家劳拉·卡斯坦森(Laura Carstensen)的研究表明，随着年龄的增长，人们变得更快乐、更满足，对世界的看法也更积极。

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00:11

人们现在越活越久，社会也逐渐变得老龄化。你可能总是听到别人这么说你，也从报纸上如是读到，从电视上看到。有时候我很担心，我们听过长寿太多次，以至于人们带着自满甚至安逸的情绪开始接受长寿的事实。但是请别搞错，长寿能够--而且我相信，它肯定会--改善所有年龄的人们的生活品质。

00:43

现在让我们先拉个远景，从宏观的角度来看，人们的平均寿命在整个20世纪增加的年数，要比上千年来人类进化过程中所增加的总和还要多，就在眨眼之间。我们已经将我们的寿命延长了一倍，所以，如果你觉得你对变老这件事并不关心，不要自责，这个话题太新了。

01:19

因为在同一时期内生育率下降了，平均寿命增加了，那个用来表示人口年龄分布的金字塔形，底部的年轻人口总是很多，延伸到老龄人口的尖顶，那些是成功存活到高龄的人。（人口金字塔）形状发生了，改变变成了长方形。

01:45

如果你是那种对人口统计感到恐惧的人，这些变化应该会让你感到难受。因为这变化表明，在人类种族历史上头一回大多数在发达国家出生的婴儿有机会活到老年。

02:07

这是怎么发生的？我们并不是在基因上比一万年前的祖先强壮，平均寿命的增加全要归功于文化--一个包含了科学和技术以及广泛的（社会）行为改变的熔炉，导致人们的健康和福利的增进，通过文化的改变，我们的祖先大幅度地消除了早亡，所以现在的人可以走完完整的一生。

02:40

老龄化催生了很多问题。疾病、贫困、社会地位的丧失，这可不是坐享荣誉的时候，不过当我们研究的越多，老龄化就变得越清晰，把它说成是一条单纯的下坡路是非常不准确的。衰老也带来一些非同凡响的进步。知识的增加，专业的精深，人生的情绪层面也有所提升。这句话很对。老年人是快乐的，他们比中年人更快乐，更理所当然地比年轻人更快乐。一个又一个的研究证实了相同的结论。

03:23

疾病防治中心(CDC)最近进行了一次调查。他们简单地要求受试者来报告，在过去的一周里，自己是否经历了重大的心理困扰，老年人承认有这类问题的，比中年人少，也比年轻人少。一项近期的盖洛普调查，询问参与者有多少压力、焦虑和愤怒情绪，他们在前一天体验过压力、焦虑、愤怒都随着年龄增长而减少。

03:56

社会学家称这种现象为：老龄化悖论。老龄化可不是小事。我们问了各种各样的问题，试图推翻这个研究结论。我们提出这可能是因为，现在正值老年的这一代人一直以来都是最伟大的一代人，而现在的年青一代可能不会在成长过程中经历同样的进步。我们也提出也许老年人只是在发扬阿Q精神，来应对令人沮丧的事实。然而我们越是想要颠覆这个结论反而找到越多的证据来支持这个结论。

04:40

很多年前，我和同事一起开始了一项研究。我们对同一组人进行跟踪调查长达十年。这组人最开始的年龄从18岁到94岁不等。我们研究了他们的情绪体验是否随着岁月而改变。研究参与者随身携带电子纸张，每次持续一周时间。我们在早晚的任意时间呼叫他们，每一次我们呼叫他们，我们会问他们几个问题用1到7的量表来衡量他们当时高兴的程度，悲伤的程度，沮丧的程度，这样我们就能监测到他们情绪和感觉上的日常状况。

05:19

通过这种对个人的密集调查，我们发现，并没有任何一代人比其他人更好，但是同一个人随着年岁增长，开始报告相对更积极的体验。现在你看到在非常高的年龄，这里有些许下降，这里的确有一些下降，但是绝没有回复到他们早期成年期的水平。

05:49

当然，光说老年人更“快乐”，那太过草率。在我们的研究里，他们更积极，但他们也比年轻人更能体会到复杂的情感。悲喜交加，你们知道就是冲着朋友微笑的同时眼含泪花，有其他研究显示老年人能够更从容地应对悲伤，他们比年轻人更能接受悲伤情绪，我们怀疑这能帮助解释为什么老年人比年轻人更擅长处理激烈的情绪冲突和争论。老年人看待不公能够带着怜悯而不是绝望。

06:40

在同等条件下，老年人会将自己的认知资源，比如注意力和记忆力，更多地导向积极信息，而不是消极信息。我们向老年组、中年组和青年组展示图像，正如你们在屏幕上看到的，过后我们让他们回忆他们看到的图像。老年组，而非青年组记得的积极图像多过消极图像。我们让老年组和青年组去看实验室研究所用的脸部表情，一些皱眉、一些微笑。老年组看向微笑的脸而回避皱眉的、愤怒的脸，在日常生活中这转换成更大的乐趣以及满足。

07:27

但作为社会学家，我们继续问是否有其他可能，也许老年人报告更多的积极感受，是因为他们认知机能受损。会不会积极情绪比消极情绪更易处理，所以他们更倾向于积极情绪？也许我们脑内的神经系统退化了，以致无法处理消极情绪，但事实并非如此，老年组里思维最敏捷的恰恰是最积极的，在关键时刻老年人处理消极情绪和处理积极情绪的能力是一样的。

08:13

这是为什么呢？在我们的研究里我们发现，这些改变在最基本上植根于人类监控时间的独特能力，不光是时钟的时间和日历的时间，更是生命的时间。如果说老龄化悖论成立，那也是因为我们认识到生命易逝而使我们把人生观变得更积极。人生的终点遥远又朦胧，年轻时通常都这么想，人们就会一直跃跃欲试，试图尽可能地去吸收信息承担风险、探索未知。我们可能会跟不喜欢的人共度时光，因为感觉这挺有趣，我们也许不经意间学到一些不该学的东西。我们去相亲，毕竟就算失败了，也还有明天。超过50岁的人就不会去相亲了。

09:22

当我们逐渐变老，跟人生终点的距离不断缩短，我们的人生目标从而改变。当我们意识到时间不再多的可以尽情挥霍，就能清楚地看到事情的轻重缓急。我们变得不在意琐碎之事了，我们享受人生，我们更懂感恩，更向往和谐。我们更致力于精神层面上重要的东西。生活变得更好，所以日益快乐。但是这种观念的改变也降低了对不公的容忍。

10:00

到2015年美国人口中60岁以上的人口，将会超过不满15岁的人口，社会老龄化之后会有什么改变？数量并不能左右结果。文化才会。如果我们投入科学和技术为老龄化问题找出解决之道，我们充分发挥老年人的真正优势。那么，寿命的增加将会戏剧性地改善人们的生活质量。无论是哪个年龄段，社会上有上百万的有才能而且情绪稳定的市民，他们更健康，受过更高的教育。与他们之前的任何一代人比，用知识武装自己，了解人生的各种状况，积极主动地去解决重大问题，社会将变得更加美好。比我们已知的更好。

11:09

我父亲已经92岁了，他喜欢说”让我们不要再说解救老年人这种话了，我们要开始谈谈如何让老年人解救所有人。”

11:24

谢谢。

The End

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00:12

People are living longer and societies are getting grayer. You hear about it all the time. You read about it in your newspapers. You hear about it on your television sets. Sometimes, I'm concerned that we hear about it so much that we've come to accept longer lives with a kind of a complacency, even ease. But make no mistake, longer lives can -- and, I believe, will improve quality of life at all ages. 

00:45

Now to put this in perspective, let me just zoom out for a minute. More years were added to average life expectancy in the 20th century than all years added across all prior millennia of human evolution combined. In the blink of an eye, we nearly doubled the length of time that we're living. So if you ever feel like you don't have this aging thing quite pegged, don't kick yourself. It's brand new. 

01:20

And because fertility rates fell across that very same period that life expectancy was going up, that pyramid that has always represented the distribution of age in the population, with many young ones at the bottom winnowed to a tiny peak of older people who make it and survive to old age, is being reshaped into a rectangle. 

01:47

And now, if you're the kind of person who can get chills from population statistics, 

01:52

these are the ones that should do it. Because what that means is that for the first time in the history of the species, the majority of babies born in the developed world are having the opportunity to grow old. 

02:09

How did this happen? Well, we're no genetically hardier than our ancestors were 10,000 years ago. This increase in life expectancy is the remarkable product of culture -- the crucible that holds science and technology and wide-scale changes in behavior that improve health and well-being. Through cultural changes, our ancestors largely eliminated early death so that people can now live out their full lives. 

02:41

Now there are problems associated with aging -- diseases, poverty, loss of social status. It's hardly time to rest on our laurels. But the more we learn about aging, the clearer it becomes that a sweeping downward course is grossly inaccurate. Aging brings some rather remarkable improvements -- increased knowledge, expertise -- and emotional aspects of life improve. That's right, older people are happy. They're happier than middle-aged people, and younger people, certainly. 

03:21

Study after study is coming to the same conclusion. 

03:24

The CDC recently conducted a survey where they asked respondents simply to tell them whether they experienced significant psychological distress in the previous week. And fewer older people answered affirmatively to that question than middle-aged people, and younger people as well. And a recent Gallup poll asked participants how much stress and worry and anger they had experienced the previous day. And stress, worry, anger all decrease with age. 

03:57

Now social scientists call this the paradox of aging. I mean, after all, aging is not a piece of cake. So we've asked all sorts of questions to see if we could undo this finding. We've asked whether it may be that the current generations of older people are and always have been the greatest generations. That is that younger people today may not typically experience these improvements as they grow older. We've asked, well, maybe older people are just trying to put a positive spin on an otherwise depressing existence. 

04:34

But the more we've tried to disavow this finding, the more evidence we find to support it. 

04:41

Years ago, my colleagues and I embarked on a study where we followed the same group of people over a 10-year period. Originally, the sample was aged 18 to 94. And we studied whether and how their emotional experiences changed as they grew older. Our participants would carry electronic pagers for a week at a time, and we'd page them throughout the day and evenings at random times. And every time we paged them, we'd ask them to answer several questions -- "On a one to seven scale, how happy are you right now?" "How sad are you right now?" "How frustrated are you right now?" -- so that we could get a sense of the kinds of emotions and feelings they were having in their day-to-day lives. 

05:21

And using this intense study of individuals, we find that it's not one particular generation that's doing better than the others, but the same individuals over time come to report relatively greater positive experience. Now you see this slight downturn at very advanced ages. And there is a slight downturn. But at no point does it return to the levels we see in early adulthood. 

05:50

Now it's really too simplistic to say that older people are "happy." In our study, they are more positive. But they're also more likely than younger people to experience mixed emotions -- sadness at the same time you experience happiness; you know, that tear in the eye when you're smiling at a friend. And other research has shown that older people seem to engage with sadness more comfortably. They're more accepting of sadness than younger people are. And we suspect that this may help to explain why older people are better than younger people at solving hotly charged emotional conflicts and debates. Older people can view injustice with compassion, but not despair. 

06:41

And all things being equal, older people direct their cognitive resources, like attention and memory, to positive information more than negative. If we show older, middle-aged, younger people images, like the ones you see on the screen, and we later ask them to recall all the images that they can, older people, but not younger people, remember more positive images than negative images. We've asked older and younger people to view faces in laboratory studies, some frowning, some smiling. Older people look toward the smiling faces and away from the frowning, angry faces. In day-to-day life, this translates into greater enjoyment and satisfaction. 

07:28

But as social scientists, we continue to ask about possible alternatives. We've said, well, maybe older people report more positive emotions because they're cognitively impaired. 

07:42

We've said, could it be that positive emotions are simply easier to process than negative emotions, and so you switch to the positive emotions? Maybe our neural centers in our brain are degraded such that we're unable to process negative emotions anymore. But that's not the case. The most mentally sharp older adults are the ones who show this positivity effect the most. And under conditions where it really matters, older people do process the negative information just as well as the positive information. 

08:14

So how can this be? Well, in our research, we've found that these changes are grounded fundamentally in the uniquely human ability to monitor time -- not just clock time and calendar time, but lifetime. And if there's a paradox of aging, it's that recognizing that we won't live forever changes our perspective on life in positive ways. When time horizons are long and nebulous, as they typically are in youth, people are constantly preparing, trying to soak up all the information they possibly can, taking risks, exploring. We might spend time with people we don't even like because it's somehow interesting. We might learn something unexpected. 

09:04

We go on blind dates. 

09:09

You know, after all, if it doesn't work out, there's always tomorrow. People over 50 don't go on blind dates. 

09:24

As we age, our time horizons grow shorter and our goals change. When we recognize that we don't have all the time in the world, we see our priorities most clearly. We take less notice of trivial matters. We savor life. We're more appreciative, more open to reconciliation. We invest in more emotionally important parts of life, and life gets better, so we're happier day-to-day. But that same shift in perspective leads us to have less tolerance than ever for injustice. 

10:02

By 2015, there will be more people in the United States over the age of 60 than under 15. What will happen to societies that are top-heavy with older people? The numbers won't determine the outcome. Culture will. If we invest in science and technology and find solutions for the real problems that older people face and we capitalize on the very real strengths of older people, then added years of life can dramatically improve quality of life at all ages. Societies with millions of talented, emotionally stable citizens who are healthier and better educated than any generations before them, armed with knowledge about the practical matters of life and motivated to solve the big issues can be better societies than we have ever known. 

11:11

My father, who is 92, likes to say, "Let's stop talking only about how to save the old folks and start talking about how to get them to save us all." 

11:25

Thank you. 

The End

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