How happiness changes with age
How people define happiness evolves as they age and with increasing age, people gain more pleasure out of everyday experiences, new research finds.
The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, explored the role of age in how people view happiness from both ordinary and the extraordinary experiences in our lives.
“We examine how age – and the perceived amount of time left in life – impacts the happiness people enjoy from both extraordinary and ordinary life experiences,” write authors Amit Bhattacharjee from Dartmouth College and Cassie Mogilner from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
They surveyed over 200 people between the ages of 19 and 79, asking participants to recall, plan, or imagine happy experiences. The authors were looking to draw a distinction between ordinary (common and frequent) versus extraordinary (uncommon and infrequent) experiences. Naturally, extraordinary experiences, such as an expensive overseas holiday, happen less often than ordinary experiences, like seeing your family.
The researchers found that across all age groups people found pleasure in both ordinary and extraordinary experiences, but it was older people who found the most pleasure from what you would call every day, ordinary experiences, such as spending time with their family, a smile from a stranger, or a walk in the park. In contrast, younger people found the most happiness through extraordinary experiences.
“Young people actively look to define themselves and thus find it particularly rewarding to accumulate extraordinary experiences that mark their progression through life milestones and help them build an interesting experiential CV,” the authors explained.
The researchers believed the difference in focus on ordinary versus extraordinary is impacted by how much time of your life is still to come.
“Ordinary, mundane moments that make up everyday life tend to be overlooked when the future seems boundless; however, the potential for these ordinary experiences to contribute to happiness increases as people come to realise their days are numbered,” the study authors wrote in their paper.
Their findings – that age changes the way people understand happiness – are consistent with previous research onto the subject. According to Heidi Halvorson from The Atlantic, “social psychologists describe this change as a consequence of a gradual shifting from promotion motivation – seeing our goals in terms of what we can gain, or how we can end up better off, to prevention motivation – seeing our goals in terms of avoiding loss and keeping things running smoothly.”
A study from the journal Psychology and Aging found that the promotion-mindedness is most prevalent among the young. The young will most likely ground their experiences of happiness in anticipating the joys the future will bring, which makes sense as youth is an idealistic time of hope, where one looks to a future of endless possibilities. There’s a reason why people always say, “Teenagers think they’re invincible”. But as people age, the illusion of invincibility fades, replaced with life’s responsibilities – earning a living, paying off a home and raising children. As people age, what it means to be happy changes. Happiness is found no longer in what is coming in the future, but being content with your current circumstances and maintaining what you’ve worked so hard to achieve, whether it’s work, relationships and family.
The research underlines not only the importance of savouring all our experiences, no matter how seemingly ordinary, but also that happiness cannot be singularly defined. It changes and evolves so what once made you happy may not necessarily be the case today. And that’s perfectly ok, it doesn’t make it any less good or you any less happy.