Who wants to live forever? Age cohort differences in attitudes toward life extension

Abstract

Introduction: Biomedical technology holds the promise of extending human life spans; however, little research has explored attitudes toward life extension.

Methods: This survey asked young adults (n = 593), younger-old adults (n = 272), and older-old adults (n = 46) whether they would take a hypothetical life extension treatment as well as the youngest and oldest age at which they would wish to live forever.

Results: Age cohorts did not vary in their willingness to use life extension; however, in all three age cohorts, a plurality indicated that they would not use it. Men indicated a higher level of willingness to use the life extension treatment than women. Younger-old and older-old adults indicated that they would prefer to live permanently at an older age than younger adults.

Discussion: If a life extension treatment were to become available that effectively stopped aging, young adults may be likely to use such a treatment to avoid reaching the ages at which older cohorts say they would prefer to live forever.

Keywords: Aging attitudes; Immortality; Technology.