Study: Speaking Multiple Languages Associated With Slower Aging
The Facts
- A study published in Nature Aging on Monday analyzed data from 86,149 adults aged 51 to 90 across 27 European countries to examine the relationship between multilingualism and biological aging, finding that monolingual individuals were twice as likely to experience accelerated aging.
- The study found that people from multilingual societies were 2.17 times less likely to experience accelerated aging compared to those from monolingual societies, even after adjusting for social and environmental factors.
- Researchers used a bio-behavioral aging clock to compare participants' predicted biological age with their chronological age, discovering that multilingual Europeans were, on average, half as likely to experience accelerated aging.
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The Spin
Narrative A
Speaking multiple languages provides robust protection against aging and extends a healthy lifespan by years. Learning another language can act like a mental workout, strengthening neural networks that typically weaken with age. This study shows bilingual or multilingual individuals across all age groups retain sharper thinking and consistently experience slower cognitive decline. The findings might motivate people to start learning a second language or to continue using the one they already know.
Narrative B
Learning foreign languages at an older age delivers negligible cognitive benefits despite popular claims. A 2020 rigorous randomized controlled study of 160 healthy seniors found that 11 weeks of Italian language training produced no meaningful improvements in verbal intelligence, spatial intelligence or working memory compared to relaxation training — suggesting that language learning may not significantly slow ageing. The supposed brain benefits are likely just statistical noise.
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