People over forty feel 20% younger than their age: Subjective age across the lifespan
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Subjective age--the age people think of themselves asbeing--is measured in a representative Danish sample of 1,470 adults between 20 and 97 years of age through personal, in-home interviews. On the average, adults younger than 25 have older subjective ages, and those older than 25 have younger subjective ages, favoring a lifespan-developmental view over an age-denial view of subjective age. When the discrepancy between subjective and chronological age is calculated as a proportion of chronological age, no increase is seen after age 40; older respondents feel 20% younger than their actual age. Demographic variables (gender, income, and education) account for very little variance in subjective age.
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Beginning in midlife, identities become increasingly youthful.
“Counterintuitively, beginning in midlife, identities become increasingly youthful”
From Centering Age Inequality: Developing a Sociology-of-Age Framework (2022) · cites this paper as Rubin & Berntsen 2006
The Results (page not provided) show that after age 40, respondents felt younger than their chronological age, with the gap increasing when measured in years. But the Results and Discussion say the proportional gap did not increase after 40: age groups felt roughly 20% younger. Thus the source supports youthful subjective ages in midlife and later, but not an increasingly youthful identity in proportional terms. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Centering Age Inequality: Developing a Sociology-of-Age Framework
Barrett, A. E. (2022) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-083121-043741 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
- Authors
- Rubin, D. C., & Berntsen, D.
- Affiliations
- Duke University (US)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Rubin, David C.
- Venue
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
- Published
- 2006-10
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 776-780
- ISSN
- 1069-9384 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-5320
- PMC
- PMC3969748
- OpenAlex
- W2065313345
- Cited by
- 339
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 1.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- DukeSpace (Duke University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH066079)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Social Sciences › Demography › Retirement, Disability, and Employment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research
- Keywords
- subjective age, chronological age, age perception, lifespan development, older adults
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Denial, Psychological, Female, Humans, Individuality, Interview, Psychological, Judgment, Male, Middle Aged, Reality Testing, Self Concept, Set, Psychology, Sweden
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