聰明人連變老都比我們慢！??！

現(xiàn)在，花點(diǎn)時(shí)間來(lái)想想你自己的年齡。不是你那個(gè)生理上的、每年喜加一的真實(shí)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(lái)，一大堆的研究都顯示，這個(gè)“主觀年齡”對(duì)于一個(gè)人健康狀況的重要指標(biāo)，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(cè)準(zhǔn)確性甚至比一個(gè)人的生理年齡還要好。簡(jiǎn)而言之，你覺(jué)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(shuō)，一方面疾病等不健康的狀態(tài)的的確確會(huì)讓你覺(jué)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(dòng)、增加你的脆弱感，并導(dǎo)致你更難應(yīng)對(duì)各種壓力——而這些都會(huì)最終導(dǎo)致疾病。而結(jié)果可能就是一個(gè)惡性循環(huán)。“老得快、變老了”的感覺(jué)導(dǎo)致你更加不愿意運(yùn)動(dòng)，由此導(dǎo)致的不健康狀態(tài)則進(jìn)一步讓這種消極的想法得到了確認(rèn)。理解這種過(guò)程可能是解決許多健康問(wèn)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(xué)(University of Montpellier)的Yannick Stephan領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了許多關(guān)于這種現(xiàn)象的實(shí)驗(yàn)，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(duì)這種現(xiàn)象的理解與一個(gè)人的智商之間的建立起了令人驚訝的聯(lián)系。根據(jù)這項(xiàng)研究，一個(gè)人在20歲左右時(shí)的智商水平越高，他/她在70多歲時(shí)就會(huì)感覺(jué)自己越年輕——這也會(huì)反應(yīng)在各種生理年齡的指標(biāo)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(tuán)隊(duì)的研究基于“威斯康辛縱向追蹤實(shí)驗(yàn)(Wisconsin Longitudinal Study)”的數(shù)據(jù)，這個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)在長(zhǎng)達(dá)幾十年的時(shí)間里，持續(xù)追蹤了1937至1940年出生的上萬(wàn)名男女。1957年，每一位實(shí)驗(yàn)對(duì)象都參加了一次智商(IQ)測(cè)試，Stephan就用這些IQ測(cè)試結(jié)果與實(shí)驗(yàn)對(duì)象們?cè)?0多年后(2011年)的“主觀年齡”數(shù)據(jù)進(jìn)行了比對(duì)。

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(lèi)似，參與實(shí)驗(yàn)的對(duì)象在70多歲時(shí)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(shí)的智力水平有關(guān)(那些年輕時(shí)IQ更高的實(shí)驗(yàn)對(duì)象在年老時(shí)覺(jué)得自己更年輕)，而即使控制了人口統(tǒng)計(jì)學(xué)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(tuán)隊(duì)也進(jìn)一步檢查了其他可能間接影響這種關(guān)聯(lián)的個(gè)人特點(diǎn)——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(yàn)開(kāi)放性(openness to experience)”看起來(lái)非常重要——而這項(xiàng)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(fù)雜信息，也會(huì)增強(qiáng)我們對(duì)于世界的好奇心，這種求知欲和興奮感能夠使人自我感覺(jué)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(duì)挑戰(zhàn)，這樣在外部環(huán)境變化時(shí)會(huì)帶來(lái)更少的挫敗感。智商較高的人還可能更容易消解年齡增長(zhǎng)帶來(lái)的負(fù)面刻板印象，這些刻板印象可能對(duì)人的行為有所限制并導(dǎo)致更強(qiáng)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(xiàng)研究與其他研究聯(lián)合起來(lái)看，童年時(shí)期的高智商也可能與其他多種生理年齡指標(biāo)相關(guān)，包括細(xì)胞的端粒長(zhǎng)度(染色體末端的“帽子”，隨著年齡增長(zhǎng)會(huì)縮短)，以及其他遺傳指標(biāo)。

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(huì)鼓勵(lì)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(rèn)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(guò)于簡(jiǎn)單的傾向。擁有高智商也能很容易地在其他方面影響一個(gè)人的健康情況，比如由于接受更好的教育而帶來(lái)的社會(huì)經(jīng)濟(jì)優(yōu)勢(shì)。

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(jī)制，但這篇文章一定會(huì)啟發(fā)未來(lái)那些關(guān)于我們認(rèn)知能力對(duì)衰老過(guò)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(gè)人則更期待看到未來(lái)的研究不僅僅限于傳統(tǒng)的智商測(cè)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(duì)爭(zhēng)論時(shí)冷靜評(píng)估一個(gè)論點(diǎn)的能力)比基本的智商水平更能準(zhǔn)確預(yù)測(cè)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(fù)債，甚至是面對(duì)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(lái)，會(huì)不會(huì)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(shí)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(duì)年齡增長(zhǎng)帶來(lái)的挑戰(zhàn)，從而減少壓力導(dǎo)致的錯(cuò)誤并鼓勵(lì)健康的行為，并最終幫助我們重新看待那些針對(duì)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(shí)，Stephan的論文還展示了一個(gè)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(shí)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了學(xué)業(yè)和事業(yè)的范圍。