And a new study has discovered the fear of becoming old may actually outweigh¹ the fear of dying.

 

一项新研究发现，衰老比死亡更让人恐惧。

 

More than one in six people would prefer to die before they turn 80 - less than the average life expectancy², scientists found.

 

Hispanics have the highest preference for a shorter life while African-American people are more likely to want to live for 100 or more years, a new study suggests.

 

But despite women living around five years longer than men, gender³ had no difference in how long people wanted to live for.

 

Age and education were also found to be unrelated - despite those with formal education tending to live longer.

 

The study is one of the first to investigate how younger adults perceive and anticipate their own ageing.

 

Researchers from the Columbia Aging Center quizzed 1,600 adults aged⁴ 18 to 64 in a telephone survey.

 

They were on average 42 years old, half were women and 33 percent were university graduates.

 

One in three would prefer to live until they are at least 80 years old, researchers discovered.

 

While a quarter of adults would prefer to live into their 90s - somewhat longer than expected.

 

The remaining people said they hoped to live to 100 or more years.

 

The results confirmed those who had fewer positive expectations of growing old preferred to die earlier, before reaching average life expectancy.

 

And conversely, those who had fewer negative expectations of old age wanted their lives to go on for longer.

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