Furthermore, Snellman's study draws parallels to another study that has shown that negative ageism - or negative attitudes about older people and ageing - stands in connection with an increased mortality among the population. The study shows that individuals with a higher level of negative attitudes (confirmed at the age of 50 or earlier) live on average 7.5 years shorter in comparison to those who have a more positive attitude towards ageing. That is proof of why an increased awareness is needed and should in all likelihood arouse people's interest in their own attitudes.
Snellman is critical towards ageism being portrayed as difficulty only for older people despite researchers in the previous study to have express ambition to eliminate the same. Regardless of the strive within science to avoid differentiating between 'us and them - old and young' which often forms the basis of the hidden and rarely questioned way of creating inequality - science upholds the difference.