Aging in Reverse: the Counterclockwise Study - Interview with Ellen Langer
Is getting old inevitable, or do we have a choice? The answer appears obvious: if an antidote to aging existed, surely we would have heard about it by now. As for growing younger, entire industries are devoted to the appearance of youth but under the surface it would seem that time marches on. How, then, is it possible for men in their late seventies and early eighties to suddenly improve their memories, hearing, eyesight, dexterity and appetite without any pharmaceutical aid? As Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer discovered in her now famous “Counterclockwise” study, the key is the human mind.
In the 1970’s, Langer and her graduate students embarked on a quest to discover the biological impact of “acting as if” it were twenty years earlier on a group of elderly men. One of their first surprises came when they asked leading geriatricians how they could measure the biological markers of age before and after the study: they were told there are none. Read More
What did you think of the article? Do you believe that age is irreversible?
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Questions That Matter: Harvard Professor Ellen Langer’s famous ‘counterclockwise’ study suggests that aging may be all in the mind. Do you think that aging is inevitable, or do we have a choice?
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