Age, Subjective Life Expectancy, and the Sense of Control: The Horizon Hypothesis

Abstract

This article reports a test of the horizon hypothesis, which states that greater subjective life expectancy increases the sense of control over one's own life and in part accounts for the negative association between age and the sense of control. Results of a U.S. survey of 2,029 respondents aged 18 and older (934 aged 50 and older) support the hypothesis. Subjective life expectancy has a significant positive association with the sense of control that does not vanish with adjustment for race, sex, education, income, widowhood, inability to work because of a disability, physical impairment, and physical fitness. Adjustment for subjective life expectancy explains the part of the negative association between age and the sense of control that remains after adjustment for education and physical impairment. Adjusting the three factors together explains 93.1 percent of the total association between age and the sense of control, and renders the remaining association insignificant.

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