IS AGE MORE THAN A NUMBER? ESSENTIALIST BELIEFS ABOUT AGING PREDICT HOW YOUNG OR OLD PEOPLE FEEL

摘要

Although aging comes with seemingly inevitable changes, there is a great variability in how young or old people feel. However, little is known about the social-cognitive determinants of this subjective age bias, that is, the discrepancy between chronological age and felt age. Thus, we examined whether variability in individuals’ subjective age can be explained by essentialist beliefs about aging. Specifically, we predicted that people who believe that aging is a fixed process, compared to those who think of it as malleable, should report a reduced subjective age bias. In line with predictions, findings demonstrate that people who endorse essentialist beliefs about aging perceived their age as static and unchangeable and reported a significantly smaller subjective age bias. This effect appeared to be even stronger with advancing age. The discussion focuses on social-cognitive and motivational mechanisms of subjective conceptions of aging and older adults’ responses to aging-related challenges.