聰明人連變老都比我們慢！??！

現(xiàn)在，花點時間來想想你自己的年齡。不是你那個生理上的、每年喜加一的真實年齡——是你自己的主觀感受。

Abundant research during the past few decades has shown that this “subjective age” can be a powerful predictor of your health, including the risk of depression, diabetes and hypertension, dementia, and hospitalisation for illness and injury, and even mortality – better than your actual age. In each case, the younger you feel, the healthier you are.

幾十年來，一大堆的研究都顯示，這個“主觀年齡”對于一個人健康狀況的重要指標，包括抑郁癥、糖尿病、高血壓、癡呆等讓人住院的疾患和傷病，甚至死亡——的預(yù)測準確性甚至比一個人的生理年齡還要好。簡而言之，你覺得自己越年輕，你就真的越健康。

The link probably goes in both directions. So while it’s true that ill-health may make you feel older, a higher subjective age could also limit your physical activity and increase feelings of vulnerability that make it hard to cope with stress – both of which could, independently, lead to illness. The result could even be a vicious cycle, where feelings of accelerated ageing lead you to become more inactive, and the resulting ill-health then further confirms your pessimistic views. And as I recently wrote for BBC Future, understanding this process could be essential for designing more effective health programmes.

而且很可能的是，反之亦然。就是說，一方面疾病等不健康的狀態(tài)的的確確會讓你覺得自己變老了，另一方面更大的“主觀年齡”同樣能限制你的生理活動、增加你的脆弱感，并導致你更難應(yīng)對各種壓力——而這些都會最終導致疾病。而結(jié)果可能就是一個惡性循環(huán)。“老得快、變老了”的感覺導致你更加不愿意運動，由此導致的不健康狀態(tài)則進一步讓這種消極的想法得到了確認。理解這種過程可能是解決許多健康問題的關(guān)鍵。

Yannick Stephan at the University of Montpellier has led much of the work examining this phenomenon, and his latest paper, published with colleagues in the journal Intelligence, extends this understanding by revealing a surprising link with IQ. According to this research, the more intelligent we are in our late teens and early 20s, the younger we will feel in our 70s – and this may also be reflected in various markers of biological ageing.

蒙彼利埃大學(University of Montpellier)的Yannick Stephan領(lǐng)導了許多關(guān)于這種現(xiàn)象的實驗，在他最新與同事一起發(fā)表在《智力(Intelligence)》雜志的論文中，他將對這種現(xiàn)象的理解與一個人的智商之間的建立起了令人驚訝的聯(lián)系。根據(jù)這項研究，一個人在20歲左右時的智商水平越高，他/她在70多歲時就會感覺自己越年輕——這也會反應(yīng)在各種生理年齡的指標上。

Stephan’s team’s analysis is based on data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which for many years has tracked thousands of men and women born between 1937 and 1940. In 1957, each member of the study took an IQ test, which Stephan then compared to their estimated subjective age, taken more than 50 years later in 2011.

Stephan團隊的研究基于“威斯康辛縱向追蹤實驗(Wisconsin Longitudinal Study)”的數(shù)據(jù)，這個實驗在長達幾十年的時間里，持續(xù)追蹤了1937至1940年出生的上萬名男女。1957年，每一位實驗對象都參加了一次智商(IQ)測試，Stephan就用這些IQ測試結(jié)果與實驗對象們在50多年后(2011年)的“主觀年齡”數(shù)據(jù)進行了比對。

In line with other studies, the average participant felt about 17 per cent younger in their 70s than their actual age – but the precise difference depended on their adolescent intelligence (those participants who’d had higher teen IQ felt even younger), a link that remained even when the analysis controlled for the influence of demographic factors.

與其他研究的結(jié)果類似，參與實驗的對象在70多歲時的“主觀年齡”要比生理年齡年輕17%——但是，具體的差距則與他們青春期時的智力水平有關(guān)(那些年輕時IQ更高的實驗對象在年老時覺得自己更年輕)，而即使控制了人口統(tǒng)計學的因素，這種聯(lián)系依然存在。

After establishing this basic correlation, Stephan’s team also looked for other personal characteristics, such as education level and different personality traits, that might mediate the relationship. They found that greater “openness to experience”, which is associated with having a higher IQ, seemed to be important. Perhaps a higher IQ, which helps us to process complex information more easily, also increases our curiosity about the world, and it’s that sense of wonder and excitement that can make us feel more youthful.

在建立起這種關(guān)聯(lián)之后，Stephan的團隊也進一步檢查了其他可能間接影響這種關(guān)聯(lián)的個人特點——比如受教育水平、不同的人格特征等。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，更高的“經(jīng)驗開放性(openness to experience)”看起來非常重要——而這項特征和高智商聯(lián)系緊密。也許更高的智商有助于我們更為容易地處理復雜信息，也會增強我們對于世界的好奇心，這種求知欲和興奮感能夠使人自我感覺更加年輕。

Everything we know about physics in one neat infographicHaving higher intelligence might also make it easier to cope with the challenges that come with age, so that we don’t feel so vulnerable to our changing circumstances. And people with higher IQ may also be better able to deconstruct the negative age stereotypes that might otherwise place limits on our behaviour and lead to greater feelings of vulnerability.

擁有高智商也讓我們能更好地應(yīng)對挑戰(zhàn)，這樣在外部環(huán)境變化時會帶來更少的挫敗感。智商較高的人還可能更容易消解年齡增長帶來的負面刻板印象，這些刻板印象可能對人的行為有所限制并導致更強烈的脆弱感。

The study chimes with others that have similarly linked a higher childhood IQ to various signs of biological ageing, including the length of our cells’ telomeres (the protective “caps” on the end of chromosomes that tend to shorten over the lifespan) and epigenetic markers.

將這項研究與其他研究聯(lián)合起來看，童年時期的高智商也可能與其他多種生理年齡指標相關(guān)，包括細胞的端粒長度(染色體末端的“帽子”，隨著年齡增長會縮短)，以及其他遺傳指標。

Given that lower subjective age appears to encourage healthier behaviours, these new findings could help to explain these earlier IQ-ageing correlations. But once again, we should be wary of oversimplifying these relationships. A higher IQ could easily enhance our health through other pathways, such as the socioeconomic advantage that comes with better education.

鑒于較低的“主觀年齡”往往會鼓勵人擁有健康的生活方式，這些新的發(fā)現(xiàn)也許可以解釋早年的高智商與晚年年齡自我認知的關(guān)聯(lián)。但是，我們還是應(yīng)該警惕把這種關(guān)聯(lián)看得過于簡單的傾向。擁有高智商也能很容易地在其他方面影響一個人的健康情況，比如由于接受更好的教育而帶來的社會經(jīng)濟優(yōu)勢。

Stephan’s paper can’t unpick all these mechanisms, but it could certainly provoke some fascinating future research on the ways our cognitive abilities influence the ageing process.

Stephan的論文不能揭示所有的這些機制，但這篇文章一定會啟發(fā)未來那些關(guān)于我們認知能力對衰老過程影響的研究。

I’d be particularly interested to see similar studies that look beyond the reasoning found on traditional intelligence tests. As Research Digest explored last year, our critical thinking skills (such as how well we are able to dispassionately evaluate an argument), are more predictive than our basic IQ of the likelihood we will experience many life events – from the small stresses such as losing your passport to getting divorced, falling into debt, or catching a sexually transmitted diseases.

我個人則更期待看到未來的研究不僅僅限于傳統(tǒng)的智商測試方法。正如《研究文摘(Research Digest)》在去年探討的話題一樣，我們的批判性思維(比如面對爭論時冷靜評估一個論點的能力)比基本的智商水平更能準確預(yù)測許多生活現(xiàn)象——從找不到身份證這種小小的壓力，一直到離婚、負債，甚至是面對感染性傳播疾病的窘境。

Might other measures of “good” thinking, prove to have an even closer link to the measures of subjective and biological ageing? It would be fascinating to see if these skills – which can be taught – could also help people cope with the challenges of old age, by reducing stressful mistakes and encouraging healthier behaviours, and by helping us to question age stereotypes.

未來，會不會出現(xiàn)其他衡量思維能力“好壞”的方式，并能夠被證明與主觀和實際的年齡聯(lián)系更加緊密呢?如果可以找到這些能力——這可是能傳授、能鍛煉的后天本領(lǐng)——可以幫助人們更好地應(yīng)對年齡增長帶來的挑戰(zhàn)，從而減少壓力導致的錯誤并鼓勵健康的行為，并最終幫助我們重新看待那些針對年齡的刻板印象，那將是非常令人神往的一件事情。

In the meantime, Stephan’s paper provides one more fascinating example of the far-reaching effects of our thinking and reasoning abilities, far beyond their obvious influence over our academic and professional success.

與此同時，Stephan的論文還展示了一個更有意思的例子，那就是我們的思維水平和理性思維能力所造成的影響，其實遠遠超出了學業(yè)和事業(yè)的范圍。