Objective and Subjective Factors in Estimating Life Expectancy
This study was undertaken to elaborate on how people estimate their personal life spans. Undergraduates (49 women and 27 men) reported on their expected personal life spans, rough estimates of life spans in their families, and actual ages at death of family members, and then took Templer's 1970 Death Anxiety Scale. Correlational analyses indicated that the subjective factor of “rough” estimate of family life span was most strongly correlated with personal subjective life expectancy, replicating previous findings. When only “objective” or reality-based factors were considered, subjective life expectancy was correlated significantly with a corrected average age at death of family members as adjusted to eliminate “nonnatural cause” deaths. Multiple regression analyses showed that personal life expectancy is best predicted by the subjective factors of “rough” family-life expectancy and the Death Anxiety Scale.