Do people get smarter as they age?

[May90]

Over the years, I've heard quite a few people use their age as an argument in support of their claims. "I am twice as old as you, I know better!", "You have very little experience; live 20 years more, and then you will get it", etc. I've never seen it as a valid reasoning. Here is my theory on how people's minds develop as they age.

During childhood/teens people form their vision on how the world around them works. That vision naturally comes with strong confirmation biases. As people live more and more, those confirmation biases convince them in that their vision of the world is right. As such, they do not really get smarter or more knowledgeable; they, instead, become less open-minded to the points of view that disagree with theirs, less objective, less fair. Sure, they might become more skilled in their profession or certain life areas - but overall they do not become smarter. As such, their opinion isn't any better than an opinion of a young person.

Do you agree with it? Do you think the young should always listen to the old due to the experience and knowledge of the latter, or that they should give the priority of their own ideas, even if they are not backed by years of experience and observation?

[Kuntantee]

The state of brain changes with new input, allowing people to recognize patterns that wasn't possible before. Considering "smart" is a vague term, I will say you get smarter as you age.

[nonameelf]

The brain doesn't become fully developed until the mid 20s, but the part of the brain that isn't developed is the part that handles impulse control, not intelligence. This is why teens and early 20s tend take really stupid risks. Also why car insurance is so much more expensive for them.

[oplawlz]

Smarter? No. Wiser? Usually.

You're vastly overestimating the effect of confirmation bias on most people. Experience teaches us what works and doesn't work, and what the likely outcomes of certain situations are.

Does that mean you should follow mindlessly? No. Older stupid people are still stupid.

Does that mean you should take the knowledge of those older as the basis for your own observations, hopefully avoiding the same mistakes they made? Yes.

The young often think they know better because their reasoning is based in idealistic views of how the world works. Experience fixes that.

[Spectral]

As near as I can tell, I'm slower witted. I probably also don't carry more raw knowledge - there are a lot of things that I used to know that I don't know anymore.

On the flip side, I'm fairly sure I've gained what people generally refer to as wisdom. I have more ability to contextualize knowledge than I used to. My impression (although I suppose it's pretty self-serving) is that I'm a little less beholden to believing the sorts of things that tend to convey social status. I think in a formal argument, current me would be likely to carve up former me.

On the whole, I don't think anyone should treat an argument with more seriousness simply because it comes from someone that's older. There are a few arguments that can come from age, those of the variety of, "I've seen something quite similar to this, and I want to tell you how it worked out" that I think are useful and informative as anecdotes. This should still be approached cautiously - experience can mislead.

[Mihalik]

Do you agree with it? Do you think the young should always listen to the old due to the experience and knowledge of the latter, or that they should give the priority of their own ideas, even if they are not backed by years of experience and observation?

Always accepting the status quo and never challenging it inherently leads to stagnation and even regression.

And as democratic elections have proven time and time again...age more often than not equals bigotry, ignorance and stupidity. See Fox News viewership age averages and recent UK referendum.

[Deleted]

young people have no idea how the world works and why

they are naive, delusional, emotional and irrational

i.e inexperienced

so not necessarily smarter, as in better cognitive functions, but more knowledgable

[Bollocks]

No creo que la gente se haga mas inteligente a medida que envejecen. Es que a medida que se envejece uno confronta sus ideas a la realidad. Asi que en ese sentido una persona vieja tiene un mayor conocimiento de la realidad; confrontan sus ideas con lo que realmente es, pero al otro lado de la moneda esto evita que abran su mente a la perspectiva de otros, pues creen que su experiencia es mas valida que las ajenas a las suyas.


I do not think people become smarter as they get older . It is that as you get older one confronts his ideas to reality. So in that sense an old person has a better understanding of reality ; They confront their ideas with what actually is, but the other side of the coin this prevents open your mind to the perspective of others , believing that their experience is more valid than others to theirs.

Shitty google translation because my vocabulary is crap in english.

[May90]

I do not think people become smarter as they get older . It is that as you get older one confronts his ideas to reality. So in that sense an old person has a better understanding of reality ; They confront their ideas with what actually is, but the other side of the coin this prevents open your mind to the perspective of others , believing that their experience is more valid than others to theirs.

Interesting opinion, I haven't thought of that. I've noticed that older people often tend to be less tolerant to opinions they disagree with, but perhaps, indeed, it can explained by them understanding the reality better and spotting things that are objectively wrong easier than others? It is easy to be open-minded when you have a lot of conflicting ideas and don't know which ones to prefer, but when you've figured out a lot of those things, being open-minded is conflicted with narrowed down ambiguity you see in the world.

[Sliske]

Blanket statements like "do people get smarter as they age" are either always obvious or always stupid.

This one is a bit of both. Do you mean knowledge? yes, of course they gain more knowledge as they grow older, but that doesn't mean they become more rational or logical. What does "smarter" mean to you? That I can see a stupid question like the one in the title, or that I can tell you how many countries were involved in WW2?

"smart" is just a trap word.

I mean a kid in their early teens probably knows more about basic maths than most adults, but the adult would still consider themselves more knowledgeable about maths. The important knowledge is life skills imo. And this just isn't taught in school, or by anyone really, you gain it through trial and error. Aint no classes teaching you how to pay your bills or plan a holiday.

[LiiLoSNK]

You peak and then get stupider, but you're always getting wiser as you age.

Being wise has to do with experience. You get to trial/error many more things as you age, thus making you wiser.

[Deleted]

Smarter? No. Wiser? Yes.

Every day you face new challenges or experinces you havn't ever encountered before, although the ammount varies. An 80 year old person will know more than a 30 year old, regardless of educational backgrounds.
While a great deal of young people, like the ones protesting brexit, think that their education makes them smarter than the older people, in reality it only give them a greater ammount of knowledge in specialized, narrowed fields.

Thinking that you can possibly have more total knowledge than someone twice your age is delusional and narcissistic.

[Citizen T]

Interesting opinion, I haven't thought of that. I've noticed that older people often tend to be less tolerant to opinions they disagree with, but perhaps, indeed, it can explained by them understanding the reality better and spotting things that are objectively wrong easier than others? It is easy to be open-minded when you have a lot of conflicting ideas and don't know which ones to prefer, but when you've figured out a lot of those things, being open-minded is conflicted with narrowed down ambiguity you see in the world.

I have to disagree with the concept of older people being less tolerant of opinions they disagree with. Just look around today at all of the young people (college students and such) that have mental breakdowns from microaggressions, the mere existence of Donald Trump, crying racist/sexist/homophobe at the first hint of disagreement of opinion, etc.

[Flatspriest]

You peak and then get stupider, but you're always getting wiser as you age.

Being wise has to do with experience. You get to trial/error many more things as you age, thus making you wiser.

Only if you learn from the experience, in which case you are getting smarter.

[natpick]

i like to think you get wiser as you get older not always smarter but i suppose the two are linked.

[Crissi]

I'm not sure even getting wiser is true. Sooo many stupid old people, old people that don't bother to be careful online, old people that fail the same task repeatedly, ect...

I'll respect those that do legit know what they talk about, but I won't listen to repeated stupidity that they think is true. Or if they're rude and think getting older allows rudeness

[May90]

I have to disagree with the concept of older people being less tolerant of opinions they disagree with. Just look around today at all of the young people (college students and such) that have mental breakdowns from microaggressions, the mere existence of Donald Trump, crying racist/sexist/homophobe at the first hint of disagreement of opinion, etc.

I think it can be explained by the current generation being grown in the conditions of relative luxury, compared to the previous ones, so they become more sensitive, and less significant things affect their mood. I definitely can see it in myself: I sometimes might have a low mood just because someone in a video game was picking on me relentlessly - apparently this is not something people growing up, say, 100 years ago would even consider relevant.

I'm not sure even getting wiser is true. Sooo many stupid old people, old people that don't bother to be careful online, old people that fail the same task repeatedly, ect...

It might depend on one's mentality. Some keep getting wiser and wiser as they grow, while others get trapped by limiting beliefs and keep hitting the same wall over and over.

[Yvaelle]

Intelligence actually declines over your lifespan. Knowledge increases.

We're born brilliant babies who literally don't know our ass from our elbow. Seriously, babies are all fucking geniuses - they teach themselves a whole new language, with virtually no translation (from baby-tongue), and how the world works, in a matter of a couple years.

We die with encyclopedic knowledge of a lifetime of events, but can't learn how to copy+paste, even if it was going to save our lives.

[GennGreymane]

People on this forum should give u the answer.

[LiiLoSNK]

Only if you learn from the experience, in which case you are getting smarter.

Yea you are getting smarter, but there are people who are smart enough to not need to trial/error certain situations.

Like if there are 2 kids, and there's a hot stove in front of them, and they are wondering if it will burn them or not. One feels heat coming from it and decides not to touch it. The other decides to touch it and gets burnt. They both now are very aware that the stove is hot, but one has a burnt hand and the other doesn't.

One is clearly smarter than the other, but they both now have learned the same lesson and are wiser, if that makes sense.

It sounds stupid, but I don't want to say that they're getting smarter, but rather just knowing more (even though that sounds like the direct definition of getting smarter).