Laura Carstensen

And so the broader environment, the milieu in which we live and age signals us that we should be happy or we should be fragile or we should, and it does have an effect.

We need to change it.

I agree.

And some of it is just knowing what the research says.

If the expectations are really negative and then you hear about a study saying, no, actually people are happier.

Sometimes that makes people pay attention more.

I've had people come to me after talks that I've given on emotion and aging who will say, interestingly, with a surprise, that they are happier.

You'd think they would know that, but that's not always the case.

And so I think we do need to present a better mosaic of what old age is like.

You know, every stage in life has positive aspects to it and negative aspects to it, and we need to focus on the full picture.

Yeah, financial security influences a subjective sense of well-being, clearly.

However, older people...

While as a group in the United States, they hold more wealth than any other age group, there is great diversity within the older group and many people today.

who are older are struggling financially.

Our work has included people at the low, relatively low levels of income to relatively high levels of income.

And we don't see differences in the trajectory.

So we're still seeing people getting better relative to younger, right, older.

But I don't mean to be dismissive of this.

This is a really important issue.

And