Feeling unhappy? Hang in there. According to a Gallup survey of 340,000 people between ages 18 and 85, the older we get, the happier we feel.
The survey asked various questions about age and sex, current events, personal finances, health and other matters and asked each person to rank overall life satisfaction on a 10-point scale.
There were also six yes-or-no questions: Did you experience the following feelings during a large part of the day yesterday: enjoyment, happiness, stress, worry, anger, sadness.
The survey found that people at age 18 feel pretty good about themselves until life throws them curve balls until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than they were at 18.
The study was not designed to figure out which factors make people happy, and the poll’s health questions were not specific enough to draw any conclusions about the effect of disease or disability on happiness in old age.
“It could be that there are environmental changes,” said Arthur A. Stone, the lead author of a new study based on the survey, “or it could be psychological changes about the way we view the world, or it could even be biological — for example brain chemistry or endocrine changes.”
But the researchers did look at four possibilities: the sex of the interviewee, whether the person had a partner, whether there were children at home and employment status. “These are four reasonable candidates,” Dr. Stone said, “but they don’t make much difference.”
It seems that happiness and wrinkles go hand in hand.
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