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shminux comments on Why people want to die - Less Wrong
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As usual, it's mostly about framing the question. "Would you like to stay young, healthy and vigorous and live as long as you like?" is very different from "Would you like to live forever?"
My point is that a lot people really, genuinely don't want to live more than 80 years. Even ones who are already in their 70s. So asking "Would you like to stay young, healthy and vigorous and live as long as you like?" just gets the sincere, possibly correct answer that they'd like to live about 80 years. That may be what they really want.
That's the wrong crowd, many of them are no longer young and vigorous, but full of stereotypes. You know, old dog, new tricks. Here is a better question to someone in their 20s or 30s:
People have already done this, and the answer people give is very often that, yes, they still don't want live past 80, and you've almost certainly heard people say this many times.
It's time to start entertaining the hypothesis that they're expressing their true preferences.
Link?
I've asked quite a few people this question, even older people. I don't have wider statistics on it (maybe you do and if so I'd be interested in seeing them) but the people I ask very rarely say they would not like to live longer if they could stay young and be with their friends and families. I have even been told yes by some very religious people in their seventies.
Maybe.
Hypothetical choices and actual choices don't elicit identical responses, as the responses have very different payouts.
Did you ask a representative sample? It seems you are talking about what you expect to happen.
Representative, probably. Large, no. But I have a large observational sample of old people in their 60s and 70s , and unemployed people younger than that, who just don't know what to do with all their spare time.
I doubt they take the question seriously due to considering the notion so unlikely to be pointless to consider.
Sure, I know the type. But these "younger" people, do they express a desire to die in the near future or they still want to wait for the magic number 80?
But, it is quite likely that older people as humans in general tend to adapt to circumstances - in this case the effects of age and the social demography in implies. All factors that inhibit doing new stuff.