Joe presents an academic poster he and Munjal Shah presented at the Bay Area Aging Symposium, UCSF; it summarized results of a 1000-person study that determined under what conditions people desire extended healthy lifespans.

1. Desire for Extended
Lifespan is Conditional
Joe Betts-LaCroix* and Munjal Shah
Health Extension Research Foundation
*contact: joe@healthext.com

2. Intro
Previous work suggested that most
people do not wish to live beyond 80-
85 years1,2. We have discovered a
factor that changes this, such that 80%
of people wish to live to 120 years or
longer.

3. RELEVANCE: Public attitudes on
longevity indirectly affect support and
funding for aging research.
Understanding these attitudes could
help increase funding, as well as
knowing which aspects to prioritize in
order to better serve the public.

4. Past Work
“I would like to reach the age of ______ years” (N = 1125)
(1) Lang, Frieder R, et al., The Journals
of Gerontology; Sep 2007; 62B, 5
80 85

5. “How long do you want to live?” (N = 31,379)
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
80 Years 120 Years 150 Years Forever
(2) David Duncan, from survey at http://www.whenim164.com
(note: subject to selection bias)

6. Methods
1000 people were randomly selected by
a professional research agency to answer
a questionnaire. Properties measured:
desired lifespan(conditional), expected
lifespan, health, interest in
science, importance of religion, life
satisfaction, self
esteem, optimism, age, race, ethnicity, g

7. Primary questions:
(1) If you could be physically & mentally the same as
your 20s, how long would you like to live?
• 85 • 120 • 150 • unlimited
(2) If you could be physically the same but NOT mentally
the same as your 20s, how long would you like to live?
• 85 • 120 • 150 • unlimited
(3) If you could be mentally the same but NOT physically
the same as your 20s, how long would you like to live?
• 85 • 120 • 150 • unlimited

8. Results
N = 1000
novel!
Summary: if either mental or physical decline is expected, more than half want to die at 85.
BUT, if neither mental nor physical decline is expected, then 80% want to live ≥ 120 years!

9. The responses for “120” and “150” do not change significantly between the Both case and
the Physically-only or Mentally-only cases. Therefore the ratio of “unlimited” to “85” is
used as the dependent variable for the following charts (and denoted “unlimited:85”)

10. Lowest Self-Esteem correlates with low desire to live indefinitely.

11. People who rate themselves as Perfectly healthy
are twice as likely to want to live indefinitely.

12. Any interest in Science is associated with the normal ratio of 2, but a disinterest
in Science is associated with a severe reversal, nearly 4:1. This unusual group is
only 4% of the sampled population.

13. Significantly higher interest in unlimited lifespan among:
Men, Whites, people with Depression or PTSD