We are a culture obsessed with youth. There are ads upon ads to help maintain a youthful look through makeup or hair restoration. The pressure to keep up with the next generation bombards everyone. There are people in their mid-life who yearn to be young again. However, new research reveals that folks deep in their 30s haven’t even reached their peak potential yet.
Recent research by Gilles Gignac from the University of Western Australia and Marcin Zajenkowski from the University of Warsaw found that while people in their 20s do have maximum physical capability and brain processing speed, most people hit their functional peak around 60 years old.
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The study measured 16 psychological dimensions and traits beyond reasoning ability that could be measured accurately. These dimensions represent enduring characteristics rather than temporary states and have documented age trajectories that are typically used as predictors of real-world performance. Some of the characteristics measured included reasoning, extraversion, emotional intelligence, emotional stability, conscientiousness, memory span, openness to experience, knowledge, processing speed, and agreeableness.
By compiling large-scale data measuring the 16 dimensions, the researchers were able to make direct comparisons of how each one ebbed, flowed, grew, or declined throughout a person’s lifespan. Based on this, they concluded that youth wasn’t the end-all, be-all of a person’s peak when it came to their mind.
“Several of the traits we measured reach their peak much later in life," Gignac wrote in ScienceAlert. “For example, conscientiousness peaked around age 65. Emotional stability peaked around age 75. Less commonly discussed dimensions, such as moral reasoning, also appear to peak in older adulthood. Overall mental functioning peaked between ages 55 and 60, before beginning to decline from around 65.”
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Why older people tend to lead
Gignac explained that this is likely why many people get higher leadership roles at work or in politics in their 50s and 60s compared to the rest of the field. That said, Gignac acknowledges that age discrimination in the workforce persists, often because employers assume that hiring a person in their 50s means a countdown to retirement at 60.
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The hope is that data like this can show that, as people get older, they’re still getting better. Different ages and stages of life have different points of “leveling up” or “leveling down.” That time isn’t something to be feared, but something to look forward to. A person is worthy at all stages of their life, whether it’s at the start of their physical prime or towards the end when they’re at their wisest.
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