Laura Carstensen: Older people are happier

Translator: Sara Fandiño Reviewer: Serv. de Norm. Lingüística U. de Santiago de Compostela

People are living longer and societies are getting grayer.

Vivimos cada vez máis anos

e as sociedades avelléntase.

You hear about it all the time.

Témolo escoitado moitas veces.

You read about it in your newspapers.

Lémolo nos xornais.

Vémolo na televisión.

You hear about it on your television sets.

Sometimes, I'm concerned

As veces preocúpame que,

that we hear about it so much that we've come to accept longer lives

de ouvir a mesma cantilena tan a miúdo,

xa teñamos interiorizada a lonxevidade, sen decatarnos do que implica.

with a kind of a complacency, even ease.

Pero non nos enganemos,

But make no mistake, longer lives can --

vivir máis anos pode, e eu creo, poderá, mellorar a calidade de vida

and, I believe, will improve quality of life at all ages.

en tódalas franxas de idade.

Now to put this in perspective, let me just zoom out for a minute.

Para poñer isto en perspectiva, permitídeme xeneralizar.

More years were added to average life expectancy in the 20th century

Aumentou máis a esperanza de vida ó longo do século XX

que en toda a nosa existencia previa

than all years added across all prior millennia

of human evolution combined.

dende a aparición do ser humano.

In the blink of an eye,

Nun chiscar de ollos,

dobramos a cantidade de tempo que vivimos.

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,

Se algunha vez sentides que non levades ben isto de envellecer,

non desacouguedes.

don't kick yourself.

It's brand new.

É unha novidade para todos nós.

And because fertility rates fell across that very same period

Mentres a esperanza de vida se disparaba, a taxa de fertilidade caía de capitón.

that life expectancy was going up,

that pyramid that has always represented the distribution of age in the population,

Por mor disto, a pirámide que representaba a distribución da poboación

segundo a súa idade, e que adoitaba ter unha base ampla, composta por xente nova

with many young ones at the bottom winnowed to a tiny peak of older people

e un cumio estreito, formado por anciáns, que acadaban idades moi avanzadas;

who make it and survive to old age,

is being reshaped into a rectangle.

estase convertendo nun rectángulo.

And now, if you're the kind of person

Se sodes o tipo de xente que ten arrepíos cando se fala de estatística poboacional,

who can get chills from population statistics,

(Laughter)

(Risas)

these are the ones that should do it.

preparádevos.

Because what that means

Porque por primeira vez na historia,

is that for the first time in the history of the species,

a maior parte dos meniños, que nacen no mundo desenvolvido,

the majority of babies born in the developed world

are having the opportunity to grow old.

teñen a oportunidade de chegar á vellez.

How did this happen?

Como chegamos a este punto?

Well, we're no genetically hardier than our ancestors were 10,000 years ago.

Non somos xeneticamente máis fortes cós nosos predecesores hai 10.000 anos.

O incremento da esperanza de vida débese á cultura,

This increase in life expectancy is the remarkable product of culture --

ese crisol en que se mestura a ciencia coa tecnoloxía,

the crucible that holds science and technology

and wide-scale changes in behavior that improve health and well-being.

con grandes trocos no comportamento que favoreceron a nosa saúde e benestar.

Through cultural changes, our ancestors largely eliminated early death

Mediante cambios culturais,

os nosos antepasados case eliminaron a morte prematura,

so that people can now live out their full lives.

propiciando que, hoxe en día, poidamos vivir moitos máis anos.

Now there are problems associated with aging --

Pero agora, atopámonos con problemas asociados co envellecemento,

diseases, poverty, loss of social status.

como doenzas, pobreza ou perda do status social.

It's hardly time to rest on our laurels.

Non é momento de poñerse a durmir.

But the more we learn about aging,

Canto máis aprendemos sobre o envellecemento,

the clearer it becomes that a sweeping downward course

máis claro temos que é incorrecto asocialo coa deterioración de facultades.

is grossly inaccurate.

Aging brings some rather remarkable improvements --

Envellecer achega melloramentos considerábeis,

increased knowledge, expertise --

máis coñecemento, experiencia e melloría emocional.

and emotional aspects of life improve.

That's right, older people are happy.

Así é, os vellos son felices.

They're happier than middle-aged people, and younger people, certainly.

De feito, son máis felices que a xente de media idade e os mozos.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

Study after study is coming to the same conclusion.

Estudo tras estudo e todos coa mesma conclusión.

The CDC recently conducted a survey

Hai pouco, o CDC levou a cabo unha enquisa

where they asked respondents simply to tell them

onde lles preguntaba ós participantes se durante a semana anterior

whether they experienced significant psychological distress

padeceran algún tipo de estrés relevante.

in the previous week.

And fewer older people answered affirmatively to that question

As persoas maiores deron menos respostas afirmativas

than middle-aged people, and younger people as well.

cá xente de media idade e cós novos.

Noutra enquisa recente, o grupo Gallup preguntoulles ós participantes

And a recent Gallup poll asked participants

how much stress and worry and anger they had experienced the previous day.

canto estrés, inquedanzas ou enfado experimentaran o día anterior.

And stress, worry, anger

O estrés,

as inquedanzas

e o enfado sufridos,

all decrease with age.

todos, reducíanse coa idade.

Now social scientists call this the paradox of aging.

Os sociólogos chámanlle o paradoxo do envellecemento.

I mean, after all, aging is not a piece of cake.

Quero dicir, despois de todo, envellecer non é tarefa doada.

Fixémonos todo tipo de preguntas para tentar resolver o misterio.

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

Preguntámonos se quizais as xeracións actuais de xente maior

are and always have been the greatest generations.

son, e foron sempre, as mellores da historia.

That is that younger people today may not typically experience

Isto implica que a mocidade de hoxe en día poida non experimentar esta melloría

these improvements as they grow older.

cando avellente.

We've asked,

Preguntámonos se quizais os vellos se comportan dunha maneira máis positiva

well, maybe older people are just trying to put a positive spin

on an otherwise depressing existence.

porque senón a súa existencia sería deprimente.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

Pero canto máis tentabamos refutar este achado,

But the more we've tried to disavow this finding,

the more evidence we find to support it.

máis evidencias atopabamos no seu favor.

Years ago, my colleagues and I embarked on a study

Hai anos, os meus colegas e máis eu comezamos un estudo

where we followed the same group of people over a 10-year period.

no que seguimos durante 10 anos ó mesmo grupo de persoas.

Originally, the sample was aged 18 to 94.

Ó comezo, a nosa mostra contiña suxeitos entre 18 e 94 anos.

And we studied whether and how their emotional experiences changed

Estudamos se as experiencias emocionais mudaban conforme avellaban e como ocorría.

as they grew older.

Démoslle ós participantes un interfono durante unha semana

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.

e chamabámolos a calquera hora do día ou da noite.

And every time we paged them,

Cada vez que o faciamos tiñan que responder varias preguntas:

we'd ask them to answer several questions --

"On a one to seven scale, how happy are you right now?"

"Nunha escala do un ao sete, cal é o seu nivel de felicidade?"

"How sad are you right now?"

"o seu nivel de tristura?"

"How frustrated are you right now?" --

"o seu nivel de frustración?"

so that we could get a sense of the kinds of emotions and feelings they were having

Deste xeito podiamos monitorizar as súas emocións e sentimentos decotío.

in their day-to-day lives.

And using this intense study of individuals,

Empregando os datos obtidos no estudo,

we find that it's not one particular generation

atopamos que non é que unha xeración en particular

that's doing better than the others,

o faga mellor cás outras,

but the same individuals over time

senón que son os mesmos individuos ó longo do tempo

come to report relatively greater positive experience.

os que van mellorando o seu nivel de felicidade.

Now you see this slight downturn at very advanced ages.

Podedes ver esta lixeira baixada en idades moi avanzadas.

Hai unha lixeira baixada,

And there is a slight downturn.

But at no point does it return to the levels we see in early adulthood.

pero de ningunha maneira chega ós niveis que vemos ó comezo da idade adulta.

Now it's really too simplistic to say that older people are "happy."

É unha xeneralización afirmar que os vellos son máis felices.

In our study, they are more positive.

No noso estudo son máis positivos.

But they're also more likely than younger people

Pero tamén son máis propensos ás emocións mesturadas.

to experience mixed emotions --

sadness at the same time you experience happiness;

Tristura ó mesmo tempo que ledicia.

you know, that tear in the eye when you're smiling at a friend.

Como aquelas bágoas nos ollos cando lle sorrimos a un amigo.

And other research has shown that older people seem to engage with sadness

Outro estudo suxire, que os maiores toleran e aceptan mellor

more comfortably.

They're more accepting of sadness than younger people are.

o pesadume cós adultos novos.

And we suspect that this may help to explain

Sospeitamos que este feito pode axudar a explicar

why older people are better than younger people

por que os maiores teñen máis destreza cá xente nova

at solving hotly charged emotional conflicts and debates.

á hora de lidar con conflitos e debates acalorados.

Older people can view injustice with compassion,

Os anciáns poden ver as inxustizas con compaixón, sen desesperanza.

but not despair.

And all things being equal,

En circunstancias semellantes, dirixen os seus recursos cognitivos,

older people direct their cognitive resources, like attention and memory,

por exemplo a atención e a memoria, cara á información positiva

to positive information more than negative.

en vez de facelo cara á negativa.

If we show older, middle-aged, younger people images,

Se lles mostramos a anciáns, adultos de media idade e mozos

like the ones you see on the screen,

imaxes como as da pantalla,

and we later ask them to recall all the images that they can,

e despois lles pedimos que recorden tantas como poidan;

older people, but not younger people,

os maiores, ó revés cós máis novos,

remember more positive images than negative images.

lembrarán máis imaxes positivas ca negativas.

We've asked older and younger people to view faces in laboratory studies,

Pedímoslles a vellos e mozos que contemplasen expresións faciais

nun estudo de laboratorio,

unhas serias, outras sorrindo...

some frowning, some smiling.

Older people look toward the smiling faces and away from the frowning, angry faces.

Os maiores miraban cara ós sorrisos evitando xestos enfurruñados e enfadados.

In day-to-day life, this translates into greater enjoyment and satisfaction.

No día a día, isto tradúcese nun nivel maior de gozo e satisfacción.

But as social scientists, we continue to ask about possible alternatives.

Pero como bos sociólogos, continuamos pescudando outras opcións.

We've said, well, maybe older people report more positive emotions

Dixemos, quizais os maiores refiren emocións máis positivas

because they're cognitively impaired.

por mor dun déficit cognitivo.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

Pensamos, podería ser que as emocións positivas

We've said, could it be

that positive emotions are simply easier to process than negative emotions,

son máis doadas de procesar cás emocións negativas,

and so you switch to the positive emotions?

de xeito que eliximos as positivas co paso do tempo?

Maybe our neural centers in our brain

Quizais os centros neuronais do noso cerebro

are degraded such that we're unable to process negative emotions anymore.

atópanse tan degradados que non poden procesar emocións negativas.

But that's not the case.

Pero non é o caso.

The most mentally sharp older adults

Os anciáns máis espelidos son os que mostran máis positivismo.

are the ones who show this positivity effect the most.

And under conditions where it really matters,

Así e todo, cando a situación o require,

older people do process the negative information

os maiores procesan a información negativa tan ben como a positiva.

just as well as the positive information.

So how can this be?

Como pode ser?

Well, in our research,

Na nosa investigación achamos que estes cambios

we've found that these changes are grounded fundamentally

fundaméntanse na facultade humana de percibir o tempo,

in the uniquely human ability to monitor time --

not just clock time and calendar time, but lifetime.

non só o ditado polo reloxo ou calendario,

senón o tempo vital.

And if there's a paradox of aging,

É o paradoxo de avellar,

it's that recognizing that we won't live forever

ó saber que non viviremos eternamente mudamos a nosa perspectiva na vida

changes our perspective on life in positive ways.

cara a unha máis positiva.

When time horizons are long and nebulous, as they typically are in youth,

Cando o final da vida é distante e incerto como acontece na xuventude,

people are constantly preparing,

preparámonos decontino, tentando absorber toda a información que podemos,

trying to soak up all the information they possibly can,

taking risks, exploring.

corremos riscos, exploramos.

We might spend time with people we don't even like

Quizais pasemos tempo con xente que non nos gusta

because it's somehow interesting.

porque, dalgún xeito, é interesante.

We might learn something unexpected.

Quizais aprendamos algo insospeitado!

(Laughter)

(Risas)

We go on blind dates.

Vamos a citas a cegas.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

You know, after all,

Despois de todo, se non funciona sempre haberá un mañá.

if it doesn't work out, there's always tomorrow.

People over 50 don't go on blind dates.

A xente de máis de 50,

non vai a citas a cegas.

(Laughter)

(Risas e aplausos)

As we age, our time horizons grow shorter and our goals change.

Cando envellecemos,

os nosos horizontes acúrtanse e os nosos obxectivos mudan.

When we recognize that we don't have all the time in the world,

Decatámonos de que non temos todo o tempo do mundo

we see our priorities most clearly.

e vemos máis claras as nosas prioridades.

We take less notice of trivial matters.

Non perdemos o tempo con problemas banais.

We savor life.

Gozamos da vida.

We're more appreciative,

Somos máis comprensivos,

máis abertos á reconciliación.

more open to reconciliation.

We invest in more emotionally important parts of life,

Centrámonos na parte emocional do que nos rodea,

and life gets better,

a nosa existencia mellora

so we're happier day-to-day.

e somos máis felices, no día a día.

But that same shift in perspective

Mais ese cambio de actitude,

leads us to have less tolerance than ever for injustice.

lévanos a ser menos tolerantes coas inxustizas.

By 2015,

En 2015, haberá máis persoas nos Estados Unidos

there will be more people in the United States

maiores de 60 anos, ca menores de 15 anos.

over the age of 60 than under 15.

What will happen to societies that are top-heavy with older people?

Cal é o futuro das sociedades cunha pirámide poboacional invertida?

The numbers won't determine the outcome.

As cifras non serán determinantes.

A cultura si.

Culture will.

If we invest in science and technology

Se investimos en ciencia e tecnoloxía

and find solutions for the real problems that older people face

para atopar solucións ós problemas cos que se enfrontan os anciáns

and we capitalize on the very real strengths of older people,

e aproveitamos os seus puntos fortes,

then added years of life can dramatically improve quality of life at all ages.

entón, o incremento da esperanza de vida pode mellorar a calidade desta

en tódalas franxas de idade.

Societies with millions of talented, emotionally stable citizens

As sociedades, con millóns de persoas talentosas

que acadaron a estabilidade emocional e que gozan de boa saúde

who are healthier and better educated than any generations before them,

e unha educación superior que calquera xeración anterior,

armed with knowledge about the practical matters of life

cargadas de coñecemento sobre os asuntos prácticos da vida

and motivated to solve the big issues

e motivadas para remediar os grandes problemas que arrostramos,

can be better societies than we have ever known.

poden chegar a ser as mellores sociedades da historia.

My father, who is 92, likes to say,

Ó meu pai, que ten 92 anos, gústalle dicir:

"Let's stop talking only about how to save the old folks

"Deixade de falar de como salvar ós vellos

and start talking about how to get them to save us all."

e empezade a facelo de como eles nos poden salvar a todos"

(Risas)

Thank you.

Grazas.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)