People believe they've finished changing as a person — at every age
Jordi Quoidbach, Daniel Gilbert and Timothy Wilson surveyed over 19,000 people aged 18 to 68 about their personality, values and preferences, looking both backward and forward. At every age, people readily admitted how much they'd changed over the past decade — then predicted almost no further change over the decade to come. The pattern held from teenagers to retirees, suggesting most of us quietly believe our personal history just finished writing itself.