Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Am Psychol. 2010 Oct;65(7):660-73. doi: 10.1037/a0021086.
The belief that science is a young person's game and that only young scientists can be productive and publish high-quality research is still widely shared by university administrators and members of the scientific community. Since the average age of university faculties is increasing not only in the United States but also in Europe, the question arises as to whether this belief is correct. If it were valid, the abolition of compulsory retirement in the United States and some parts of Canada would lower the productivity of these university systems. To address this question, this article reviews research on the association of age and scientific productivity conducted during the last four decades in North America and Europe. Whereas early research typically showed a decline in productivity after the ages of 40 to 45 years, this decline has been absent in more recent studies. Explanations for this change are discussed.
有一种观点认为，科学是年轻人的游戏，只有年轻的科学家才能富有成效并发表高质量的研究成果，这种观点在大学管理人员和科学界成员中仍然普遍存在。由于不仅在美国，而且在欧洲，大学教师的平均年龄都在增加，因此出现了这样一个问题：这种观点是否正确。如果这种观点成立，那么美国和加拿大的一些地区取消强制退休制度将会降低这些大学系统的生产力。为了解决这个问题，本文回顾了过去四十年在北美和欧洲进行的关于年龄与科学生产力之间关系的研究。虽然早期的研究通常表明，在 40 到 45 岁之后，生产力会下降，但最近的研究中并没有出现这种下降。本文还讨论了这种变化的原因。
