Thirty is the new 20. Forty is the new 30. Fifty is the new 40. And now, new research finds, many of us hit our mental and emotional peak around age 60.
The study, by a pair of psychologists in Poland and Australia, was published in the journal Intelligence.
Some traits, such as physical strength and mental processing speed, hit their peak in one’s mid-20s and slowly decline thereafter.
But if you stitch together other relevant psychological traits, like intelligence, personality, emotional intelligence and decision-making, overall functioning continues to improve until the late 50s to early 60s.
The researchers pulled data from many personality tests taken by thousands of users and created two models to look at how we function as we age.
They created a conventional model that emphasized traditional cognitive abilities and core personality traits. And they created a second model that added a broader range of traits, such as financial reasoning, cognitive empathy and resistance to decision-making biases.
Under both models, people were firing on all cylinders from around age 40 through 65. And the study suggests that age range is when people are best-suited for high-stakes decision-making roles.
With any upside, a downside often lurks, and the study found that most people’s capabilities begin to wane markedly from their late 60s and beyond.
At the end of the day, however, everyone is different — and aging, like bangs or buzz cuts, looks different on everyone.
