History is full of examples of people who did great things after the age of fifty: think of Beethoven, who composed the Ninth Symphony at 53 (and completely deaf); to Monet, who painted the Water lilies between 60 and 80 years old; to Kant, who wrote his Critique of pure reason at 57 years old.
Although this shows that the brain functions well even beyond the age of 40, the widespread belief is that the peak of cognitive performance occurs at a young age. A study published in Intelligence demonstrates the opposite, highlighting how overall psychological functioning reaches its maximum between the ages of 55 and 60.
Beyond the basic physical and intellect. We know from several studies that the physical peak is normally reached between the ages of 25 and 35, and that basic intellectual abilities (ability to reason, remember and process information quickly) begin to deteriorate after the age of 25.
The authors of the new study instead investigated the development of 16 psychological traits, including emotional intelligence, short-term memory, processing speed, and also the so-called big five (five main personality traits) − extroversion, emotional stability, conscientiousness, open-mindedness and amiability.
sixty years at the top. By analyzing and standardizing the results of several large-scale studies, the authors found that many of the traits analyzed peak beyond age 50, and some even beyond age 70.
This is the case of being conscientious, which reaches its peak around the age of 65, but also of emotional stability, at most around the age of 75, and the ability to resist cognitive biases (and therefore to make more thoughtful decisions), which even improves up to the age of eighty. “Overall mental functioning peaks between the ages of 55 and 60, and then begins to decline around 65,” he explains in an article The Conversation Gilles Gignac, research coordinator.
Hiring over 50s. What has been discovered explains why mature people often excel in leadership roles, having developed the qualities necessary to run a company or a political party, and highlights the need to review staff hiring practices, recognizing that a worker over 50 often has valuable skills but always keeping in mind, reminds Gignac, that “age alone does not determine overall cognitive functioning”.
