Growing Older, Feeling Younger: Navigating the Relationship between Health, Age Identity, and Stereotypes about Old Age in Later Life

Adults aged 60-80 were presented with positive or negative representations of aging. Participants’ self-rated health, anxiety about aging, and subjective age were assessed. When primed with negative age stereotypes, participants in better health with high anxiety about aging, reported feeling older while those with lower age anxiety felt subjectively younger.