100
Do people get progressively less happy as they age?
(literature.cafe)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
100 points (98.1% liked)
Ask Lemmy
39067 readers
1363 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Here you go, OP (full-access preprint here). There's no need to get anecdotal about this; it's a very well-studied question in psychology, sociology, and economics. The U-shape has extensive evidence supporting it. If "have you gotten progressively less happy as you age?" were the prompt here, I wouldn't be doing this, but you asked a general question that can be and has been answered empirically over and over.
From Tech's Link...
You missed a call
Hell yeah
So, it can get better, but rarely if ever does it compare to the blithe joys of youth.
I do wonder if this upturn is related to cognitive decline, and therefore ties into the old "ignorance is bliss" adage, then.
Hell, maybe that has something to do with old folks enjoying reruns: it reminds them of their life, then and now. 🤔😅
They’ve also often got lower stress levels, higher wealth and/or more time than people in their thirties to fifties do. I’d be really interested if they’re also happier than their middle aged counterparts in countries where the elderly are disconnected from their communities and not financially supported.
Edit: it’s true around the world, but I’m not sure if it’s true in every country or just generally yet
And, when younger, expenses were less likely to be their responsibility, ergo "more wealth", et al, in youth as well. 🤓
The question is, if this is correlation or causation. Maybe some people just do less things, that make them happy as they age? Doesn't mean that you are gonna be unhappy.
Also, this is an average and I imagine, that there is a very high variance among different people. A lot of people may very well get progressively, happier as they age.
I would say, that happiness comes very much down to how you live your life, how you view the world and what you do.
If you have a job, that makes you happy and good relationships and stuff like that, you are probably gonna be happy regardless of your age.