YOUTHFUL AND OLDER BIASES AS SPECIAL CASES OF A SELF-AGE OPTIMIZATIONBIAS

Two concepts of subjective age are measured for two cohorts (college s tudents and older persons with an age range of 50 to 91 years). Functi onal age (Kastenbaum ct al., 1972 Ages-of-Me Scale [1]) shows the typi cal youthful bias for the older cohort. An older bias is shown for the Best/Ideal Age by the older cohort in comparison to the younger cohor t. Taken together, the youthful bias, being like someone of younger ch ronological age, and the bias of selecting a relatively older age as b est represents a ''Self Age Optimization Bias.'' A sub-set of Best Age items dealing with work and career are identified for gender and coho rt comparisons.