The aging stereotype in experimental perspective

Age Stereotyping

College students from California, Tennessee, and Massachusetts evaluated 19 characteristics of a 25-, 52-, or 73-year-old stimulus person on semantic differential scales. Results revealed significantly more negative evaluations of the person when he was older than when he was either middle-aged or younger and were consistent for all three regions of the country.

Situational Determinants of Attitudes toward the Elderly

The present investigation was undertaken to examine the effects of systematic variation of described situational factors on a multidimensional evaluation of the elderly by young adults. Young male and female subjects received a positive, neutral, or negative description in conjunction with the photo of a young or old male. As hypothesized, the ratings of both young and old "persons" were a function of associated situational description. It was also found that the views of the young varied considerably across the different attitude dimensions considered. Further, ratings on these dimensions were differentially-influenced by the different descriptive situations provided.

Willingness to Interact with an Old Person

A 3 x 2 factorial design tested the effects of the age and socioeconomic status of a stimulus-person on the willingness of college students to associate with him at a "formal lecture" and at an "informal discussion and coffee hour." For the more intimate coffee hour situation, willingness to associate with a high socioeconomic status person did not differ by age, whereas willingness to associate with a low socioeconomic status person was significantly greater when he was either young or middle-aged than when he was old. These results indicate that old age is a stigma that wealth, in certain circumstances, can overcome.

Attitudes toward the Aged

A review of past research shows that negative stereotypes and attitudes about the aged are widespread. We need theoretically oriented research to specify what determines the stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminations against the aged. This research should be based on probability samples and use scales tested for reliability and validity. In order to reduce ageism and thus improve the quality of life among our elders, controlled experiments are needed to determine which methods of reducing ageism are most effective and efficient.

Judgments about Stereotypes of the Elderly

In this study, 125 adults in three age groups (young, middle-aged, and elderly) rated the typicality and approximate age of individuals representing 11 stereotypes of the elderly. Participants indicated their attitudes toward the individuals on a set of bipolar adjective scales. Attitude results conformed to the pattern predicted. Attitudes toward individual stereotypes varied according to the valence of each stereotype rather than participant age. Likewise, age judgments varied with the valence of the stereotype. Participants of all ages chose the older age ranges for the more negative stereotypes and younger age ranges for the positive stereotypes. Finally, elderly participants gave lower typicality ratings to the stereotypes than those in the other two age groups, although those in all age groups ordered the stereotypes similarly in terms of their typicality. Results are discussed in terms of their relationship to the cognitive representations of aging held by those in the three age groups.

Age stereotypes and self-views in later life: Evaluating rival assumptions

Concerning the relation between age stereotypes and self-views in older people, three general assumptions can be distinguished: (1) age stereotypes contaminate the self-views of older people (“contamination hypothesis”), (2) age stereotypes serve as a reference standard for self-enhancing comparisons (“comparison hypothesis”), (3) individually held age stereotypes are a projection of elderly persons’ self-views (“externalisation hypothesis”). These hypotheses were evaluated in a cross-sequential study assessing self-ratings and ratings of the “typical old person” over a longitudinal interval of 8 years in a sample of 690 participants (initial age range 54–77 years). Conforming to the contamination hypothesis (but contrary to the comparison hypothesis), stereotyped expectations about elderly people predicted later self-appraisals. Conforming with the externalisation hypothesis, self-views had an influence on individually held age stereotypes. Findings also highlight the importance of differential factors: A disposition to flexibly disengage from blocked goals shields self-views from self-deprecating influences of negative age stereotypes in old age.

L’âgisme : Adaptation française d’une mesure et test d’un modèle structural des effets de l’empathie, l’orientation à la dominance sociale et le dogmatisme sur l’âgisme

This article presents two studies dealing with ageism. The objective of the first study was to adapt to French language and validate the Fraboni of Ageism Scale-Revised (FSA-R) which contains 23 items, while the objective of the second study was to test a structural model containing ageism as measured by the FSA-R and the “Big Three”: empathy, social dominance orientation, and dogmatism, controlled for by sex and age. The results of the first study (n = 323) generated a version of the FSA-R comprising 14 items, of which the psychometric properties were very satisfactory. Using structural equation modelling and bootstrap procedure, the results of the second study (n = 284) showed a direct negative and significant effect of empathy on agism. They also showed that this negative effect was mediated by dogmatism and social dominance orientation, which both exerted a positive effect on ageism.

The multidimensional nature of ageism: construct validity and group differences

The authors investigated the factor structure and construct validity of the Fraboni Scale of Ageism and the age and gender differences in ageism scores. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the multidimensional nature of FSA scores and generally corroborated the initial factor structure reported by M. Fraboni, with some notable exceptions. Essentially, the present findings were aligned with theoretical models of ageism that emphasize both cognitive facets and affective facets. That is, on the basis of their factor analytic findings, the authors redefined Fraboni's original factors of Antilocution, Avoidance, and Discrimination as Stereotypes, Separation, and Affective Attitudes, respectively, because of the clustering of items within factors. The revised 3-factor structure accounted for 36.4% of the variance in FSA scores. FSA factor scores significantly related to other scores from other measures of age-related attitudes, with higher correlations among factors that were similar in terms of their cognitive nature versus their affective nature. Finally, younger individuals and men had significantly higher ageism scores on the FSA than older individuals and women. The authors discussed the importance of adequately assessing ageism, with particular emphasis devoted to the understanding of age bias.

Age stereotyping: are we oversimplifying the phenomenon?

This study investigates the use of age stereotypes in evaluating individuals' behavior in context-specific situations. One hundred university students assessed young male, young female, old male, and old female characters in four vignettes using the Rosencranz and McNevin Semantic Differential. The data revealed limited but conflicting evidence of the use of stereotypes when the stimuli portrayed target characters in lifelike situations rather than in an experimental vacuum. It is argued that while stereotyping can occur in specific contexts, its form is greatly influenced by other aspects of the situation. The need to reconceptualize the notion of stereotypes of the elderly is discussed, and a shift in emphasis toward the analysis of subgroup stereotypes as opposed to one consistent global stereotype of old age is urged.

Characterizing adolescents, middle-aged, and elderly adults: putting the elderly into perspective

Adolescents, middle-aged, and elderly adults used a Likert scale to describe an ideal, real, or typical person of either their own age group or one of the other two. On each of four dimensions of instrumentality, autonomy, acceptability, and integrity, ideal people were characterized more positively than real or typical ones. Age of neither participant or stimulus object affected these judgments. Stereotypes emerged when typical people were rated, though judgments on real people suggested little difference between elderly and middle-aged people. However, real adolescents were judged to be more unacceptable, dependent, and instrumental than were middle-aged and elderly adults. On instrumentality the age groups differed in their perceptions of each other. Adolescents and middle-aged adults perceived instrumentality to decline in old age, but the elderly did not agree. Thus attitudes reflected stereotypes when broad categorical decisions were required, but stereotypes broke down when known people were characterized.

Attitudes and perceptions about the elderly: current and future perspectives

Research on attitudes and perceptions of the aged is critically reviewed. Problems with early survey research methods such as lack of generalizability, susceptibility to demand characteristics, and inattention to psychometric quality are discussed. Recent studies are examined in terms of characteristics of the stimuli and contexts, and characteristics of the perceivers employed in them. Methodological and conceptual issues in these three categories are used to organize the body of research that exists. Suggestions are made for future research in which the use of multiple measures in specific contexts is emphasized.