 From the dawn of humanity until very recently, aging and death were given. In a best-case scenario, you get old and then you die. It's been this way forever, and it's viewed by many as our natural fate and something to be accepted. This is what might be referred to as learned helplessness, and it's a concept that we can and must overcome. If you believe that circumstances are beyond your control and feel helpless to do anything about it, you could end up accepting what is happening, even if circumstances change enough to offer a way out. Or at least, this is what is seen in experiments. People and animals have been shown to resign themselves to pain and misery, or to expect failure, and therefore to not even try. In the 1960s, psychologist Martin Seligman demonstrated this through a series of now famous and controversial experiments. In his studies, some dogs received a mild electric shock that they had no way to prevent. Later, when the experiment changed, they had a way to escape, but they didn't take it. They accepted the shock, even though they could do something to prevent it. This seems to be very relevant to what we are experiencing today when it comes to tackling aging and aging-related diseases. A type of what we're calling learned helplessness could be playing a role in people's reluctance to take on aging or their disbelief in the potential of longevity science. Now, there are some differences here. In the experiment, the dogs failed to change their circumstances and faced immediate negative consequences because of that. That's not a perfect analogy for what we're facing with aging. For many of us, aging is actually seen as a good thing, or at least something we wouldn't want to halt or reverse, at least until we're into adulthood. And then, at some point, there are clear signs of aging that many of us might want to avoid. Things like wrinkles, gray hair, or diminished physical ability. The effects of aging are coming for us all, but they typically don't become unbearable until the later stages of life. So we don't necessarily accept aging because of our own past experiences. We accept it because we've seen everyone else go through it. Everyone who has ever lived has gone through this process, so we're resigned to continue on this trajectory because we know of no other path. Or perhaps we think it's misguided or egotistical to consider an alternative. This is the learned helplessness of aging. One interesting thing about learned helplessness is that, once you convince yourself that you're helpless, you hold on to that conviction, even when the circumstances change. When it comes to aging, up until very recently, you really were helpless. But now, it looks like we can do something about this, something our ancestors never could. Aging no longer seems to be inevitable. We are not there yet, but we are making progress. If you were one of Seligman's dogs, would you stay put and accept your shock? Or would you act and change your situation? Will you take action in your own life to change your story? Or are you going to resign yourself to the deterioration of your health and your eventual death? The choice is yours. I'm Ryan O'Shea and we'll see you next time on Lifespan News.