You’re NOT as old as you feel - inside you’re ageless

FORGET about only being as old as you feel – many of us are ageless.

Psychologists found that more than one in 20 do not have an ‘age they feel inside’.

By contrast, one in 10 is ‘agebound’ – stressed about how old they are.

The study exposes the myth that everyone has a subjective age that is different from their real one, said Southampton University researcher Sengul Kupeli-Holt. ‘Many people simply do not have an age on the inside – they are ageless,’ she added.

The study of 1,114 women and men found almost 10 per cent believe they have a subjective age – saying, for example, ‘I always feel 18 inside’ – and were classified as agebound. But 6.5 per cent said they did not have a subjective age, and the remainder were on a spectrum between the two extremes.

Ageless and agebound people were evenly spread across real ages and gender.

Ms Kupeli-Holt’s research was presented yesterday at the British Psychological Society conference in Liverpool.