Catherine Conlon: 'Maybe it’s time we stopped treating midlife as a countdown'
The researchers suggested that these findings may help to explain why many of the most demanding leadership roles in business, politics and public life are often held by people in their fifties and early sixties. Picture: istock
To all those who think they are past it at 50, think again.
Middle age has a dreadful reputation. Waistlines thicken, knees creak, careers stall. Children demand attention at either end of the day, and parents demand attention in between. It is little wonder it sometimes feels as if it is all just too much, as you suddenly feel way past your prime.
Now, recent research suggests that, contrary to previous findings, using a wider lens that includes traits such as mental processing, reasoning, emotional intelligence, judgment, and decision-making, overall mental functioning actually peaks between 55 and 60.
History is full of people who reached their peak performance well past what society often labels ‘peak age’.
Laura Ingalls Wilder published the first of the book series in 1932 at the age of 65. It became a children’s literary classic and the basis for the TV show . Vera Wang was a figure skater and journalist before entering the fashion industry at age 40, becoming one of the world’s premier women designers.
Charles Darwin spent most of his life as a naturalist who kept to himself before writing On The changed the scientific community forever.
Our own Jessie Buckley, one of Ireland’s and Hollywood’s brightest talents, won an Oscar at 36 for her performance in ? Could she have put in such a performance when she started building her craft in her teens and twenties?
What do these people have in common? They are all demonstrating that age is not a barrier, but rather a catalyst for influence and success.
As part of this new study, researchers analysed data over several decades, looking at 16 personality and cognitive traits, from decision- making to conscientiousness to emotional intelligence.
The study, , published in in December, 2025, concluded that men and women have a cognitive sweet spot, fuelled by greater emotional stability, a stronger sense of self and smarter judgement when they reach 55 to 60.
There is plenty of research showing that peak physical fitness comes in the mid-twenties while the ability to reason, process information and retain facts also starts to deteriorate as early as the mid-twenties.
In this study, the researchers focused on psychological traits that went beyond reasoning ability but could be measured accurately.
The dimensions identified included core cognitive abilities such as reasoning, processing speed, memory span, knowledge, and emotional intelligence.
They also included key personality traits – extroversion, emotional stability, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and what they called agreeableness.
The researchers examined existing large-scale studies, performed over several decades, and focused on the 16 traits identified. By standardising these studies to a common scale, they were able to make direct comparisons and map how each trait evolves over a lifespan.
Associate Professor Gilles Gignac, from the University of Australia’s School of Psychological Science, and his colleague Marcin Zajenkowski found several of the 16 traits examined reached their peak much later in life.
For example, conscientiousness peaked at around age 65, and emotional stability peaked around age 75.
Dimensions less commonly discussed, such as moral reasoning, also appear to peak in older adulthood. And the capacity to resist taking mental shortcuts, leading to less accurate or more irrational decisions – may continue to improve well into the 70s and even 80s.
When the age-related trajectories of all 16 dimensions were combined into a weighted index, some interesting trends emerged.
“That decline became more pronounced after age 75, suggesting that later life reductions in functioning can accelerate once they begin.”
The researchers suggested that these findings may help to explain why many of the most demanding leadership roles in business, politics and public life are often held by people in their fifties and early sixties.
While several abilities decline with age, they are balanced by the strengthening of other important traits. Overall, these strengths support better judgment and more measured decision-making – qualities that are crucial in leadership roles.
Maybe it’s time we stopped treating midlife as a countdown and listened to the science that tells us we are entering the peak of our abilities.
As we approach our seventh decade, the world is telling us we are past it – the science is telling us we are hitting our prime.
- Dr Catherine Conlon is a public health doctor in Cork
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