Age-liars and birthday-deniers... you'd best learn a thing or two from those who are young at heart. People who feel younger than their actual chronological¹ age may live longer than those who feel older than they truly are, a new study says.

谎报年龄、否认生日……想要变得年轻，那么你最好试着学学那些拥有年轻心态的人。一项新的研究称，那些自我感觉比实际年龄小的人可能比那些自我感觉比实际年龄大的人更加长寿。

Perceived age might play a role in more than just how you feel. Results from the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggest that people who feel a year or more older than they truly are could have around 41 percent greater risk for death.

感知年龄所起到的作用可能远远不止于你的感觉如何。从《美国医学协会杂志》（The Journal of the American Medical Association）的研究结果来看，那些感觉自己比实际年龄大一岁或好几岁的人会比一般人高出近41%的死亡风险。

University College London researchers looked at nearly 6,500 older adults, with an average age of 65.8 for the study. Around 70 percent of the subjects felt younger than they were, about a quarter felt their precise age and just under 5 percent felt a year or more older than they were, when asked "How old do you feel you are?"

伦敦大学学院(University College London)的研究人员调查了近6500名平均年龄为65.8岁的老年人。在回答“您感觉自己年龄有多大？”这个问题上，当中大约70%的老年人觉得自己比实际年龄小，约25%的人认为自己符合实际年龄，而只有不到5%的人认为自己比实际年龄大一岁或好几岁。

Those who felt older than they were had a higher death rate after a follow-up period of 99 months. While just 14.3 and 18.5 percent of people who felt younger or felt their age, respectively, died during those 99 months, 24.6 percent of those who felt aged² beyond their years had died.

那些觉得自己年龄比实际大的人在接下来的99个月的随访期中死亡的可能性更高。而那些心态年轻以及心态岁数和实际年龄相当的人在接下来的99个月中的死亡可能性分别只有14.3%和18.5%，而那些觉得自己比实际年纪大的人有24.6%已经在这99个月中死亡。

The authors say more research is needed on the topic, but suggest it could be that those who feel "young at heart" have healthier behaviors and more resilience, giving them a stronger will to live. "Self-perceived age has the potential to change, so interventions³ may be possible. Individuals who feel older than their actual age could be targeted with health messages promoting positive health behaviors and attitudes toward aging," the authors write in the study.

作者称，还需要做更多的研究来论证这个话题，但也同时表示那些心态年轻的人有更健康的行为习惯及更好的抗打击力，使得他们有更加强大的生存意志。作者在该项研究中写道：“自我感知年龄的状况将会改变，使得实施预防措施变得可能。那些觉得自己比实际年龄大的人可以通过健康暗示来增强其对于衰老的积极行为和态度。”

The good news is, youcanchange your perception of howyoungyou are. And other studies suggest that there could be more benefits to thinking yourself younger, besides a longer life. One recent study found that helping⁴ participants have positive feelings toward age, by showing them positive word associations, helped older adults improve in physical tasks like balancing and getting up out of a chair, in as little as four weeks. A 2013 study found that negative stereotypes⁵ of aging and poor memory can make older adults feel up to five years older, regardless of their actual mental abilities.

好消息是，你可以改变自己对年纪的认知。其他的研究也表明，心态年轻除了能延长寿命外，还益处多多。最近有研究发现，通过对老年人讲积极鼓舞的话，帮助他们对年龄保持乐观的心态的方式，能在短短四周内，提高老年人的身体机能：如平衡能力，从椅子上站起来的能力。2013年的一项研究发现，不论他们的实际心理能力如何，对衰老的消极刻板印象和记忆力衰退会使老年人感到自己比实际年龄老五岁。

There you have it. Age really should be treated as just a number.

现在你明白了，年龄真的应该仅仅被看成一个数字。