Is life's happiness curve really U-shaped?

Ageing doesn't mean a steady descent into misery - evidence suggests that happiness is likely to increase as we head towards old age, but is it that simple?

"I hope I die before I get old," wrote Pete Townsend of the Who in 1965, neatly encapsulating our culture's veneration of youth - and disdain for those benighted souls who no longer possess it.

The 20-year-old Townsend was, of course, to be disappointed: last month he turned 70. But over the decades he may have revised his views on the grimness of growing old. Because the ageing process isn't necessarily a steady descent into misery; on the contrary, the evidence suggests that happiness is likely to increase as we head towards old age.