When “stereotype embodiment theory” revealed that negative thoughts about getting older could shorten people’s lives (Levy, 2009), the message to the public was to reject ageist beliefs and instead focus on aging’s benefits. There are all sorts of websites now that recommend you rid your mind of all the images and thoughts linking aging with weakness and sickness. In fact, when my colleagues and I, who serve on the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Committee on Aging, developed the 2025 Resolution on Ageism, we heartily endorsed the idea that ageism produces a host of risks to mental and physical health.

No one would argue that ageism is all that great as a societal ill, but in a new study by Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena’s M. Clara P. de Paulo Couto and colleagues (2025), there could be some personal benefits buried in all those derogatory depictions of older adults. Using a measure called “Views on Aging (VoA),” the international team of authors probed ageist stereotypes to see if beliefs about older adults in general could and should be separated from beliefs about yourself.

You can see this distinction in one of the VoA measures that de Paulo Couto et al. used in their study. On a 1 to 8 scale, how much would you agree with this item: “When I am older, I will have few [vs. many] friends and acquaintances.” Now, how would you rate this item: “Old people have few [vs. many] friends and acquaintances.” You can see by these two sample........

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