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Agreed! From Aging’s Changing Face in Psychology Today:

Researchers who have found that negative stereotypes about aging can actually shorten your life. A Yale University study last year in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who have a positive perception of aging tend to live seven and a half years longer than those who don’t. The difference may be the result of a better response to stress or even just the will to live, according to the study.

Research has found that memory studies can intimidate elderly subjects into performing poorly. Older subjects score higher on memory tests if they aren’t explicitly told that the study is about memory and aging, according to a study by researchers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

We are swayed by our own expectations. The research, reported in the Journal of Gerontology, found that elderly subjects scored 20 to 30 percent worse on memory tests after reading a pessimistic newspaper account about aging and memory than those who read a cheerful article about growing older.

I think I suck, ergo, I suck?

Did someone just get around to reading Illusions?

Illusions is a good book, as is Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

I think the quote is “Argue for your limitations, and they’re yours”, though.