How do what you consider as "old age" change when you reach 30, 40 and 50 years of age

The British royal family, generation after generation.Chris Jackson / Getty Images

• As people get older, their thinking about age changes dramatically.
• Research shows that we are naturally age biased, but as we age, this bias begins to disappear.
• "People often feel younger than their real age," said Alan Castel, a psychologist at UCLA, at Business Insider. "On some" milestone "birthdays (30, 40, 50), research has shown that people are rebadessing their age and adopting / changing their habits."
• Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.

Of course, aging is a constant life, but recently, it is also a subject of current events.

Earlier this month, FaceApp's old-age filter became viral thanks to celebrity snapshots like Gordon Ramsay and Drake. The controversial photo editing app has since been criticized for collecting and storing user data, but in addition to privacy concerns, the app has the strange ability to show what the use will look like. of artificial intelligence – throw a new surrealistic light on the old age.

The journalist who wrote this, for example, tried FaceApp's old age filter and found it scary, disturbing and probably accurate. And, obviously, it's not the only one.

"People tend not to think of old age as long as they do not notice physical changes," says Alan Castel, professor of psychology at UCLA and author of "Better With Age." Or, as evidenced by the virality of the application, they see simulated changes.

"People often feel younger than their real age," he told Business Insider. "On some" milestone "birthdays (30, 40, 50), research has shown that people are rebadessing their age and adopting / changing their habits." Their ideal age, or their desired age, also tends to increase.

FaceApp's old age filter.FaceApp

"Historical" birthdays change perceptions of age.

For example, a study conducted in 2018 (with more than 500,000 respondents!) Revealed that historic birthdays brought about all sorts of changes, as in:

• At age 30, the ideal age was 20 years old. The thirties felt good and hoped to live up to 89 years on average.
• At age 40, the ideal age has risen to 30 years. The age at which they felt was around the end of their thirties and they hoped to live to 88 years.
• At age 50, the ideal age had pbaded in the late thirties. The 50 year old people felt like they were 40 years old. The age at which one hoped to live increased considerably after 40 years. The 50-year-old hoped to live up to 89, just like the 30-year-old.

The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, indicates that when adults are asked about their ideal age, they choose a more advanced ideal age. For example, 30-year-olds choose their 25-year-old as the ideal age group, while 60-year-olds choose 40-year-olds. The 90 years go even further by choosing 60 years.

The way young Americans reward young people changes these perceptions.

"Especially in American culture, there is a fascination to be and to be perceived as young." William Chopik, a social personality psychologist and Michigan State professor who participated in the study, told Business Insider. "We badociate youth with good things." (Just like the ancient Greeks.)

Other research has highlighted the negative attitudes badociated with aging. According to a 2016 study, people who frown are older than others. "It only gets worse as people get older – when you ask them how old they feel, they say they are younger and younger than they are in the aim to look younger, "said Chopik.

While it's hard to know if people really feel younger than their age, or simply say it, Chopik thinks that we are naturally geared towards young people. In his study, the one with half a million people surveyed, Chopik asked participants how old they would grow up. The older the participant, the older the age of onset.

Chopik says people delay their old age to look younger. "It is possible that their attitudes become more negative (because they are facing their own aging), but at least we know that people are pushing back to advanced age in the future when this awareness ( as they get older) begins to infiltrate, "he says.