Becca LevyAcademic
Professor of Epidemiology (Social and Behavioral Sciences) and Professor of Psychology; Chair, Social and Behavioral Sciences Department
Cited in UK press coverage of health & social care
2 citations
Across 1 topic, first on 27 Aug 2026.
Biography
Dr Becca Levy is Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health and Professor of Psychology at Yale University, where she also chairs the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department. She received her PhD in psychology from Harvard University and held a National Institute on Aging postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School's Division of Aging and Department of Social Medicine. She is credited with creating a field of study examining how positive and negative age stereotypes, assimilated from the wider culture, affect the cognitive and physical health and longevity of older individuals. Her research findings provided the rationale for the World Health Organization's Campaign to Combat Ageism, supported by 194 countries, in which she serves as a scientific advisor. She is the author of 'Breaking the Age Code' (2022), reviewed in The Times, and has argued publicly that ageism constitutes a public health crisis with measurable costs to health systems.
References
- 1.Becca Levy, PhD | Yale School of Public Health — Current role, department, research focus, awards, and publication record at Yale
- 2.Becca Levy | Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale — Full title (Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences) and Psychology; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health), US Senate testimony and Supreme Court contributions
- 3.About – Becca Levy (personal academic site) — WHO Campaign to Combat Ageism scientific advisor role; Harvard PhD and postdoctoral fellowship; awards
- 4.Becca Levy and the Fight Against Ageism | Yale School of Public Health — $63 billion ageism health-cost study; WHO campaign grounded in her research; argument that ageism is a public health crisis
- 5.Breaking the Age Code | Penguin Books UK
Expertise
Cited on
Stated areas of expertise
- Ageism and older people's health
- Age stereotypes and longevity
- Psychology of ageing
- Social gerontology
- Mental health and ageing
- Public health costs of ageism
Notable achievements
- Served as scientific advisor to the WHO Campaign to Combat Ageism, supported by 194 member countries Source ↗
- Conducted the first study to show the economic impact of ageism on the health of older persons, finding a one-year US cost of $63 billion Source ↗
- Gave invited testimony before the US Senate on the adverse effects of ageism and contributed to briefs submitted to the US Supreme Court in age-discrimination cases Source ↗
- Received the Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award from the Gerontological Society of America and the Ewald W. Busse Research Award from the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (awarded once every four years) Source ↗
- Published 'Breaking the Age Code' (2022), recipient of the 2023 Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Book Award, reviewed in The Times (UK) Source ↗
What they’ve said
“Many people have examples in their own lives or can point to people that do show improvement in later life, but we tend to classify them as exceptions or exemplars.”
psychologist, Yale School of Public Health · Elderly care & frailty · 27 Aug 2026 · ‘The happiest time of life is as you get older’: can positive thinking help you age better? ↗
“The research of Yale University's Becca Levy, for example, has shown that when people expect old age to be pockmarked with frailty and decline, it becomes more likely to happen.”
Yale University · Elderly care & frailty · 27 Aug 2026 · A new test claims to tell how well you’re ageing – and even when you’ll die. But I’d rather not know | Helen Pilcher ↗
Source references
- ‘The happiest time of life is as you get older’: can positive thinking help you age better?theguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
- A new test claims to tell how well you’re ageing – and even when you’ll die. But I’d rather not know | Helen Pilchertheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
Contact & links
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Professors, researchers and think-tank analysts quoted on the strength of their research rather than a clinical role. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.