At present, the leading representatives of science do not question the fact that millions of years ago man gradually separated from the animal world. Material scientists have deeply investigated the process of transformation of the ancients into. Qualitative and profound changes in the appearance of a person and his turned out to be associated with his social and work activities.

The creation and purposeful use of tools is a distinctive feature of a person.

With the help of even the most primitive tools of labor, a person was able to provide himself and his relatives with the most necessary for life. This sharply reduced the dependence of man on the influence of natural factors and reduced the importance of natural selection, which plays an important role in the development of biological species.

In the process of collective labor activity, people were united in social groups. This led to the emergence and development of speech as a way of exchanging messages. At the same time, the vocal apparatus and those areas of the brain that are responsible for thinking and speaking developed. But the senses, so important, have lost their importance, vision, smell and hearing have dulled.

How did a person develop and change

There is every reason to believe that the ancestors of modern apes and humans were narrow-nosed primates, whose herds lived in ancient tropical forests. This largely determines the similarity between humans and primates in appearance and behavior. But there are also significant differences.

Descending from the trees and moving to terrestrial habitation, the ancestors of man found upright posture. The forelimbs that were freed at the same time could be used to perform the simplest labor operations. Straightening the body led to a shift in the center of gravity, which caused the restructuring of the skeletal system and the musculoskeletal system. The spine has become more flexible.

Over time, the ancient man developed a springy arched foot, the pelvis expanded slightly, and the chest became wider.

The movements of the developing person became freer. A step forward in evolution was the opposition of thumbs, which made it possible for a person to make more complex and accurate wrist movements. The detached thumb made it possible to securely hold weapons and tools in the hand.

With the advent of tools, hunting weapons and fire, the human diet has also changed. Food cooked over a fire reduced the stress on the chewing apparatus and digestive organs. The intestines gradually became shorter, the structure of the facial muscles changed. In the course of slow mutational changes, the oral apparatus and larynx were gradually transformed. As a result, a person received developed speech organs.

The changes described did not take place immediately, but stretched over many hundreds of generations. Man acquired his modern appearance about 40-50 thousand years ago. Since then, there have been fundamental changes in the way of life of people, unprecedented technological opportunities have appeared, but the appearance of a person has not changed significantly.

Image copyright Rodrigo lacruz

The proportions and facial features of a modern person were formed under the influence not only of natural factors, such as the surrounding climate and diet, but also as a result of social interaction.

Rich facial expressions provided our ancestors with more effective (including non-verbal) communication with relatives and gave them a better chance of survival - and, therefore, was fixed at the genetic level as a result of natural selection.

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An international group of scientists came to this conclusion after studying the history of the evolution of the human face over the past 4.5 million years - from the early Australopithecines to the present day.

"We know that other factors - such as diet, respiratory physiology and climate - have also contributed to the shaping of the modern person's face," said one of the authors of the work, University of York professor Paul O "Higgins. "However, it is an unacceptable oversimplification to explain its evolution solely by these factors."

Social animal

The face is our most striking feature. When talking about any person or hearing a mention of someone, the first thing we do is imagine his face - and we get a little lost if we cannot find the corresponding picture in our memory and substitute it for the name.

The faces of people around the world are simultaneously similar - and at the same time unique. We all have the same set of facial muscles, but facial expressions can be very different.

However, you have hardly ever thought seriously that the reflection that you see in the mirror every day is the result of millions of years of evolution.

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The face of a modern person is very different in appearance from the faces of our primitive ancestors, and even more so the closest biological relatives, great apes.

In comparison with them, we have rather small facial features, significantly shifted from the center down and located under the voluminous cranium. For many, this may sound unexpected, but any artist knows that on the oval of the face, the eyes are located almost in the middle.

To understand what caused such features of our appearance, scientists studied how the proportions and facial features of our ancestors changed in the course of evolution. The study goes back into history for 4.4 million years - it was then that the Ardipithecs lived in East Africa, who are considered the oldest progenitors of modern people.

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As a result, scientists came to the conclusion that social factors played an important role in the formation of our appearance - namely, the ability of our facial expressions to provide more effective communication.

"We can portray more than 20 different categories of emotions on our face only by contracting or relaxing certain muscles," says Professor O "Higgins. "It is almost impossible to imagine that our distant ancestors could handle their facial expressions as skillfully, since their faces differed from ours both in shape in general and in the location of specific muscles."

Image copyright University of York Image caption Professor Paul O "Higgins of the University of York

The massive browbone of ancient people in the course of evolution smoothed out, giving way to a wide forehead and two separate eyebrows, capable of conveying a much wider range of experiences.

Facial features in general have become more sophisticated, which allows us to express a wide range of emotions, including those that are subtle from each other - for example, recognition and sympathy.

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Especially quickly, the appearance of our ancestors began to change in the last 100 thousand years: the lower part of the face has shrunk in size.

This is primarily due to a change in diet: cooked food required less chewing effort - and powerful jaws were no longer a necessity.

At the same time, the need for more effective communication grew - and natural selection preferred those facial features that better helped to express emotions.

The modern world is changing rapidly. Over the years since the beginning of the XXI century, human life has changed in the scale in which it has changed over the last 50 years of the XX century. Irreversible changes in society, politics, technology, culture, medicine have transformed the person himself.

Global addiction

The availability of the Internet is growing every year. According to the Pew Research Center, if in 1998 only 41% of residents of the United States, the world's most developed economy, had access to the Internet, then in 2018 this figure rose to 89%. The time spent on the World Wide Web is also steadily increasing. It has grown on average from 9.4 hours per week in 2000 to 23.6 hours in 2018, according to a report by the Annenberg School of Media Research.

Researchers are paying attention to the change in the importance of the Internet in our lives from a secondary function in the early 2000s to an indispensable attribute in the late 2010s. We now have round-the-clock access to the Internet, which, according to Geoffrey Cole, director of the Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, is even more important to us than the telegraph and telephone in their time.

The influence of the Internet can hardly be overestimated. According to sociological services, in Western countries, about 62% of users admit that the global network is almost crucial for maintaining interpersonal relationships.

Thanks to the internet and the mobile app industry, offline interactions between people have been greatly reduced. Every year, a person is less and less faced with the problem of using paper money and small change - already in 2008 in Western countries, cashless payments accounted for about 60% of all transactions, and in 2018 - over 80%.

Call a taxi, plan a trip, exchange currency, get advice, make an acquaintance - all this can be done online. Microsoft recently surveyed 2,500 users and found that 35% of respondents spend most of their free time online. Futurologists fear that the hour is not far off when the virtual space will finally absorb humanity.

Erasing borders

We live in an era of devaluation of the traditional definitions of “man” and “woman”. Every year the line separating the gender roles of men and women in society is getting thinner. If 15 years ago in the United States the term “rape” was applied exclusively to women, then since 2013 the American judicial and law enforcement system has recognized that men can also be forced into sexual violence without the use of physical force. Violence is recognized even when “the victim, for whatever reason, is not able to consent to sexual contact”.

The difference between men and women and in the level of income is disappearing. Among some age categories, women have even taken the lead. For example, in the United States, as of 2010, urban childless women in their 20s earned on average 8% more than men of the same demographic group. The gap was especially large in New York, Los Angeles and San Diego - about 15%. According to American sociologists, the reason for the increase in the level of income of the weaker sex is that in the United States for every three women who receive higher education, there are only two men.

The situation is similar in Russia. According to the vice-speaker of the Federation Council Galina Karelova, in 2017 the average salary of women was 72% of the income received by a man, and in 2011 this figure reached only 67.9%. In Russia, as in the rest of the world, the number of women top managers is increasing every year. Statistics show that today 51 out of 1000 leading companies in the world are run by women. Back in 2005, there were only 29 of them.

New landmarks

The standards of appearance and beauty in the modern world are changing almost with the speed of the appearance of new gadgets from Apple. So, if back in 2008 a bronze tan was in fashion, prompting hundreds of thousands of women and men to spend more time in a solarium, nowadays a natural complexion is in trend.

The last decade has been marked by the growing popularity of various means of correcting appearance. Face and body modeling is no longer such an exotic procedure, even in such a conservative country as Turkey. So, in April 2018, the Turkish research institution Konda INTERACTIVE conducted a survey of 5,793 people and found that between 2015 and 2018, the number of local residents approving of plastic surgery increased from 20% to 48%.

On the other hand, in many Western countries, plastic surgery has become more selective. The boom of the 2000s has already passed on injections of Botox and fillers, which deprive a woman of her individuality. On the contrary, smart-aging is becoming a more relevant trend, when a woman tries to stay beautiful without hiding her age. A prime example of this image is actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

Newfangled diets are gradually becoming a thing of the past, which more likely undermined people's health than contributed to weight loss. “Now the key to successful weight loss is motivation and an individual approach,” says Daria Rusakova, a researcher at the Clinic of the Research Institute of Nutrition.

Reducing calories

Over the past decade, science has provided a lot of evidence that humans adapt very quickly to changing living conditions. For example, Danish scientists have found that overweight today has much less harm on people's health than 40 years ago. And Italian scientists reported that moderate consumption of beer not only improves health, but also promotes longevity.

A group of Swiss scientists published the results of a report in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in which they refute the assertion that as wealth rises, we increase the amount of food consumed. This was the case 10 years ago, but today the diet of residents of rich countries is becoming increasingly scarce. The authors of the study note that although the well-being of countries such as the USA, Germany, Switzerland, France, Japan is constantly growing, the demand for food in them is falling.

One of the explanations for this phenomenon may be a high rise in prices for food products on the world market. The food price index, according to the UN, increased by 50 points from 2006 to 2013. There has been no such dynamic since the beginning of the global food crisis in the 1970s.

Economist Hanne Ritchie sees a different reason for the decline in calorie intake in developed countries. According to the specialist, on the one hand, this is due to the fact that we began to better feel the physical limit of food intake, on the other hand, the growing prosperity allowed us to eat more vegetables and fruits.

A similar point of view was reached at the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They studied the diet of 47 thousand Russian families and found out that over the past 10 years, the consumption of potatoes and bread has significantly decreased, but the amount of fruits, vegetables, fish, eggs and dairy products eaten has increased.

To sports for youth

Life expectancy is steadily increasing in Western countries. Russia is no exception here: over the past 10 years in our country, it has grown on average from 65 to 72 years. It is not surprising that people tend to push away old age further and further. Women especially persist in this. According to the Russian marketing company BBDO Branding, women aged 45+ are more and more often found not driving a car, but on a scooter. They prefer to wear youthful clothes, go to a stylist and, in general, are not age appropriate.

As before, sport plays an important role in the struggle for youth. The involvement of Russians in it has grown markedly since the early 2000s. According to the Institute of Public Opinion "Anketolog", more than half of Russians are involved in sports today - 57%. Confirmation of the positive dynamics of the attitude of Russians to active pastime are the results of the VTsIOM poll. The number of our compatriots who go in for sports 2-3 times a week in the period from 2006 to 2013 increased from 8 to 14%. During this period, the share of population involvement in fitness activities increased from 31 to 43%.

Every morning, going to the mirror, we look at our face and hardly notice those tiny, but, alas, constant changes that are happening to us. And only when old acquaintances who have not seen for a long time cease to recognize us on the street, we understand that we are no longer those young and recognizable.

In this article, you will find out what happens to our appearance as we age. You may have noticed similar changes already.

How does your appearance change over the years?

  • 0 -14 years old. The skull is fully formed upon reaching the age of 14. As he grows up, his face acquires "maturity", its features become tougher and brighter, losing the pleasant childish roundness and softness of the lines. Male adolescents notice that their face is beginning to be covered with the first vegetation, it is also noted an increase in the size of the Adam's apple.
  • 14 -20 years. The jaw and frontal lines, together with the outlines of the chin, acquire clarity, the roundness of the nose disappears. Into a more straight line the line of the bridge of the nose is transformed, the skin becomes denser. In this adolescent period, there is often an initial stage for the manifestation of facial wrinkles - small, but already quite distinguishable.
  • 20 -30 years. How does your appearance change over the years? In the period from 20 to 30 years, the final formation of the face oval takes place. Cheekbones, chin and jaws becomes inherent in a large convex... The face becomes somewhat coarse, a sharp delineation of its contours appears. The previously almost invisible wrinkles are now more vivid and distinctly expressed. The formation of the face is decisively influenced by character, on which it largely depends facial expressions and indirectly - traits... Eyes become deeper-set, and some men in these years are already beginning to go bald.
  • After 45. It is at this age that the face lends itself to aging. Wrinkles appear on the forehead, eyelids, nasolabial folds deepen. The skin begins to sag in the area jaws, there is a softening of the facial oval. But the areas of the temples and eyeballs, on the contrary, become more pronounced. Hair begins to turn gray (this applies to both men and women), vision becomes worse, hyperopia may develop.


  • TO60 years. Wrinkles are pronounced as well as the presence of dark circles and puffiness under the eyes. The hairline is thinning, and in men by this time it may already be completely absent. The outlines of the bridge of the nose, eyebrows and the area near the eyes become sharper, while even more strong sinking of the eyes themselves. The skin loses its elasticity and volume, sagging and thinning so much that it allows you to determine the relief of the cranium. The fleshiness of the earlobes, cheeks and upper eyelids increases.
  • After80 years old. A net of wrinkles covers the entire face, the upper eyelids sag, visually reducing the eyes, and the lips become thinner and wrinkled. The cheekbones sink, and the cheeks become saggy. The nose sharpens and lengthens, acquiring a bony silhouette. Deep wrinkles resemble furrows and the hair becomes completely gray and fine.




How does an older person's appearance change?

With the onset of old age, a person's face undergoes dramatic changes. How the appearance of an elderly person changes:

  • Laxity of the soft tissues of the face, a clear manifestation of bone structures.
  • The skin loses its elasticity weakening of the chewing muscles, teeth fall out, which becomes the reasons for the sinking of the cheeks.
  • Distinct cheekbones on the face.
  • Moves forward and lifts the chin.
  • Lip volume decreases, they become thinner and sunken (this is especially pronounced if the front teeth are lost or worn out), many vertical wrinkles appear on them.
  • The distance from the tip of the nose to the chin is getting smaller, the location of the nasolabial folds is clearly visible.
  • The oral slit appears to be more compressed, as the circular and other labial muscles are weakened, and the corners of the mouth also descend.
  • The nose becomes thicker in the area of ​​the tip and tilts downward, and inside it there is massive growth of hairs, it also loses its clarity of outlines, since by this age it is already the cartilaginous structure is significantly weakened.
  • Significant an increase in the number of folds, wrinkles, age spots.
  • The temporal muscle atrophies, making the temporal region flat, sometimes sunken, with the outlines of blood vessels visible under the thinned skin.
  • Increasing the stiffness of the eyebrow hair, their bushiness.
  • Laxity of the upper eyelid, loss of its elasticity and the acquisition of transverse wrinkles by the eyelid, reduction of the crease of the eyelid, which has lost muscle elasticity.
  • Increase in the number and length of periocular wrinkles.
  • Eyelashes become thin and shapeless.
  • The emergence bags under the lower eyelid, as a result of the accumulation of fluids and fatty deposits
  • Fewer and fewer fat cells remain in the eye area, so they become sunken, which changes the entire shape of the eye.
  • Pupil decrease due to the fact that the pigment of the iris becomes less and less, it changes color.
  • The conjunctiva becomes covered with capillaries, the sclera turns yellow, and the cornea becomes more and more dull, as the content of such a component as lacrimal fluid is minimized.
  • It thickens, at first it turns yellow, and then the lens begins to cloud. Compared with an earlier age, the white of the eye becomes denser, yellowish and gradually becomes cloudy.
  • Cartilage loses its elasticity, This is especially evident in the example of the auricles, which become longer, the growth of hairs begins in the ear, and the lobes hang down.
  • It is seen many wrinkles behind the ears.
  • The hairline becomes thinner, the hair that has turned gray by this time begins to fall out (usually from the forehead and temples, as well as in the parietal region).
  • The appearance of hair in the nasolabial triangle, possibly on the chin, after menopause.
  • By the combination of the above changes, the degree of aging is determined.


Why does the appearance change?

  • Why does the appearance change? This is due processes that occur in all tissues and blood vessels, in cells and organs. Most clearly in the external appearance of a person is manifests itself on the face and neck. At what speed such changes proceed depends on the general physical and psychological state.
  • Increased emotionality for example, it affects blood vessels and is one of the reasons for the early aging of the face, on which folds and wrinkles appear earlier than among their peers. Such processes are also influenced by external factors, the environment, whether teeth are preserved or lost, whether the muscles involved in mimic and chewing processes are active.
  • Affects the appearance with age and distribution of the subcutaneous fat layer. So, in young years, it is located mainly in the cheeks, with aging in the process of atrophy - on the chin, lengthening the face. The more muscle tone weakens, the more muscles atrophy making the face wrinkled, plastically expressionless.


At what age does the appearance of men and women change?

  • Does your appearance change? The appearance of nasolabial folds occurs between 20 to 25 years old, after another 10 years they become a furrow, which after another 10-15 years becomes pronounced.
  • Wrinkles under the eyes begin to appear already upon reaching the age of 25, the same applies to the wrinkles in the corners of the eyes, which we call crow's feet.


  • Concerning pregel wrinkles then they are visible on male faces after 30 years, on female faces - after 40.
  • On the neck, wrinkles begin to appear after 25, and between the eyebrows - much later, after 50. At the same age, the face changes in profile, becomes wider.
  • The eyelids may begin to deform and in 30 years. So appearance changes by age.
  • Age-related (senile) changes are, in addition to the signs listed above, the appearance of age spots, yellowish skin lumps, bruises or bruises, vascular nets, often located in the cheeks or nose, vascular nodules.

How does a woman's appearance change with age?

  • Let's start with the eyes. They change their appearance due to the overhanging of the upper eyelid, the appearance of puffy bags, wrinkles. At the same time, the eyes themselves do not change their shape and size, but the sagging skin around makes them visually smaller in size and expressiveness.
  • Brows can begin to change at a fairly young age - after 30, if the condition of the muscles is unsatisfactory and can lead to sagging of the tissues, as a result of which the eyebrows drop, making the look tired.


  • Nose changes very much due to tissue atrophy, becoming wider and larger, and the tip gradually sags more and more, losing elasticity.
  • Lips are also prone to early aging.- after 30, vertical folds may appear above the upper lip. The changes do not affect the shape and size, referring only to the total volume.
  • The chin, even if initially it was clearly pronounced and sharp, over the years, due to the loss of tissue elasticity, it changes its shape, folds and "dents" often appear on it. This is how a woman's appearance changes with age.

How does men's appearance change with age?

  • The blood circulation in the male skin is much more intense than in the female, therefore, after the final formation of the face oval, and up to 40 years old, there are practically no changes in it.
  • After 40 years, the changes are noticeable because deep wrinkles appear, having a relief, and a face that is called "Floats". Deformation of the oval is noticeable on it, the appearance of flews, they begin to form hernia on the eyelids and bags under the eyes. The skin becomes drier, testosterone levels decrease and, as a result, sebaceous and sweat glands perform their functions worse.
  • Vessels also weaken by the age of forty - they begin to form vascular network of a reddish or purple hue. If a man also abuses alcohol, this process is especially pronounced and is called rosacea. This is how the appearance of men changes.


At an older age, the skin on the face acquires looseness and flabbiness, puffiness appears due to the fact that more and more fluid is retained in the body. The appearance of a double chin is also a phenomenon inherent in this particular age. Plus, there is an increase in all the processes that began earlier.

Video: How does a person change with age?

It is generally accepted that adolescents are touchy and quick-tempered, adults are calm and judicious, and old people are conservative. All these are age stereotypes. In principle, we all already know about the attitudes prevalent in our society. And what about the others? Maybe in Asian countries with their traditional cult of ancestors, everything is different and older people, on the contrary, are considered the ideal of calmness and wisdom?

A group of scientists decided to find out what age stereotypes prevail in different cultures. For this, a large-scale survey was conducted in 26 countries, including Russia.

It revealed that stereotypes are the same everywhere. Russians, Americans, Koreans, Swiss, Argentines, Australians and representatives of other countries think the same about age-related changes in character.

And they think this:

  • Teenagers - emotionally unstable, extroverted, open-minded, anxious, aggressive, impulsive, vulnerable and gullible. They are more reflective than others, more easily come to emotional excitement and are more susceptible to herd instinct. Actions, values, feelings, fantasies and positive emotions are more important to them than to other age groups. They are also the most incompetent, undisciplined and uncooperative, usually do not say what they think, and are not prone to altruism.
  • Adults - Conscious, persistent, competent, distrustful and disciplined. They value aesthetics more than others and more strive for personal achievement. They are also the least vulnerable and less likely than others to reflect.
  • Aged people the most benevolent, altruistic, compliant, kind, introverted and accommodating. At the same time, they are prone to depression, more often than others, they say that they think, value order more and are more attentive to a sense of duty. They are less open to new things than other age groups.

To check how these stereotypes correspond to the truth, it is necessary to compare them with studies of the real character of people of different ages. When conducting such studies, scientists resort to psychometrics - "measuring" character traits.


How to "measure" character

Speaking about the character of another person, we, as a rule, express our subjective opinion. It is clear that one and the same person may seem rude and angry to someone, and to someone, on the contrary, good-natured and open. It all depends on personal perception and the circumstances in which we communicated with him. Of course, these kinds of descriptions are not suitable for character research. Otherwise, their results each time would depend on the subjective opinion of a particular scientist. To avoid this, specialists for many years have developed various psychological tests that allow more or less objectively "measure" the character.

On the Internet, everyone has come across "psychological" tests more than once and probably even passed them a couple of times out of boredom. But most of these tests have little to do with science - they are invented by amateurs.

Today, the scientific community most widely used to “measure” character is the “big five”: a personality model consisting of five relatively independent traits: extraversion, benevolence (accommodatingness), conscientiousness, neuroticism (the opposite of emotional stability) and openness to new things.

To measure these traits, psychologists compose special questionnaires, out of curiosity you can take one of them. Such questionnaires are the most scientific psychological tests available at the moment. It is on them that scientists rely on when trying to determine a person's character.


How character and age are actually related

Numerous studies confirm that personality traits are not stable and do change with age. A person in several decades can change beyond recognition: a desperate adventurer in his youth by old age can turn into an inveterate conservative who almost never leaves the house.

But do age-related changes in character correspond to social stereotypes? In short, yes, almost completely. Here's what scientists have found about the correlation between the Big Five personality traits and age:

  • Extroversion decreases consistently with age. Accordingly, people under the age of 30 are most open to communication. Among old people, introverts predominate, who prefer solitude to communication with others.
  • Benevolence increases with age. The most noticeable leap in compliance occurs when people emerge from puberty - around the age of 20. Adolescents, as is commonly believed, are much less accommodating than adults and old people.
  • Consciousness grows on average until a person reaches retirement age. After the 50-60 mark, people become less conscious on average. Perhaps this is due to retirement: when you are no longer burdened with work duties, you can finally rest and be a little disorganized and loose.
    The biggest leap in consciousness occurs in the twenties, which is easy to explain: at this age people go to work and start a family or enter into a serious relationship. Although consciousness decreases slightly after 60 years, the elderly are still more responsible than adolescents. The difference in this indicator between 70-year-olds and 40-year-olds is less than between 30-year-olds and 20-year-olds.
  • Emotional stability ... Here, real character changes are also quite consistent with stereotypes: the older a person is, the more stable he is emotionally. It was not possible to record any sharp jumps in this indicator: emotional stability simply consistently grows with age.
  • Openness to new ... And here there are no surprises compared to the stereotypes: the most closed and conservative turned out to be the elderly, the most open - adolescents and 20-year-olds. After reaching the 30-year mark, openness begins to decline gradually. But the researchers did not reveal a serious difference between adolescents and 20-year-olds in this indicator.

Of course, all these patterns reflect only a general trend - they are based on the average survey data. Although people, on average, with age become prone to introversion and more closed, this does not mean that you personally in old age will suddenly turn into a grump who, more than anything else, loves to sit alone in his room and do not care about human communication and new experiences.

And yet, the almost complete correspondence of age-related changes in character to common stereotypes is striking. Scientists have an explanation for this.


Why stereotypes reflect reality

An important role in character changes is played by a change in social roles and the desire to conform to them. There can be several such roles, for example, one person can play simultaneously the role of spouse, parent and employee. There are certain stereotypes about each of them in society: for example, parents should be responsible and caring. We internalize these attitudes and then, often unconsciously, strive to conform to them. Deviating behavior from what the social role dictates is fraught with social censure. With age, social roles change and we try to adjust our character to them. So we unconsciously adjust our own character traits to the rules of behavior that are deeply rooted in society.

Scientists have found that when trying to predict the character of another person, we take into account both his age and his social role.

At the same time, changes in character traits when changing roles coincide with social expectations. For example, when a person stops being a student and starts working, those around him expect more responsibility from him, and he really becomes more conscious.

At the heart of our desire to adapt to stereotypes is the desire to be "normal", like everyone else. But no one forbids you to come up with your own "norm" and refuse to "grow up" in accordance with social attitudes. You can join the anti-age movement, who are fighting against age stereotypes, or arrange your own quiet rebellion and try not to lose adventurism, maximalism and curiosity with age, if you so desire. The main thing is to realize that for this you need to stop going with the flow and start molding yourself into the person you like, no matter what society, mom and partner may think about this.