Ageism: stereotyping and prejudice against older persons

389 Pages·2002·1.91 MB·English

by  Todd D. Nelson

Ageism
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Ageism
Stereotyping and Prejudice against Older Persons
edited by Todd D. Nelson
A Bradford Book
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2002 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying,
recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in
writing from the publisher.
This book was set in New Baskerville by Graphic Composition, Inc.
Printed and Bound in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ageism : stereotyping and prejudice against older persons / edited by
Todd D. Nelson.
p. cm.
“A Bradford book.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-14077-2 (hc. : alk. paper)
1. Ageism. 2. Ageism—United States. I. Nelson, Todd D., 1966–
HQ1061 .A42442 2002
305.26'0973—dc21
2001044756
Contents
Preface ix
Contributors xv
I Origins of Ageism
1
Doddering But Dear: Process, Content, and Function in Stereotyping of
Older Persons
Amy J. C. Cuddy and Susan T. Fiske 3
2
Ageism: Denying the Face of the Future
Jeff Greenberg, Jeff Schimel, and Andy Mertens 27
3
Implicit Ageism
Becca R. Levy and Mahzarin R. Banaji 49
4
A Social-Developmental View of Ageism
Joann M. Montepare and Leslie A. Zebrowitz 77
vi Contents
II Effects of Ageism
5
Attitudes toward Older Adults
Mary E. Kite and Lisa Smith Wagner 129
6
Ageism in the Workplace: A Communication Perspective
Robert McCann and Howard Giles 163
7
Ageist Behavior
Monisha Pasupathi and Corinna E. Löckenhoff 201
8
The Paradox of Well-Being, Identity Processes, and Stereotype Threat:
Ageism and Its Potential Relationships to the Self in Later Life
Susan Krauss Whitbourne and Joel R. Sneed 247
III Reducing Ageism and Future Directions
9
Acting Your Age
Sarit A. Golub, Allan Filipowicz, and Ellen J. Langer 277
10
W ill Families Support Their Elders? Answers from Across Culture s
Sik Hung Ng 295
11
Reducing Ageism
Valerie Braithwaite 311
Contents vii
12
Thirty Years of Ageism Research
Jody A. Wilkinson and Kenneth F. Ferraro 339
Index 359
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Preface
In social perception, people tend rather automatically to categorize oth-
ers along three major dimensions: race, sex, and age (Kunda 1999). Ever
since the early days of social psychology, researchers have been interested
in the causes and consequences of such categorization, with specific focus
on the stereotypes and prejudice that arise from this automatic social per-
ception. Much empirical and theoretical attention has been devoted to
the study of racism and sexism, but comparatively very little research in
psychology has been directed at understanding what some refer to as the
“third ism,” ageism (Barrow and Smith 1979). To illustrate this, consider
the results of a PsycInfo database search I conducted minutes ago. I ran
three searches and set up the search criteria to look for the words racism,
sexism, and ageism anywhere in the abstract of each article. The results in-
dicated 2,215 articles for racism, 1,085 articles for sexism, and a mere 215
articles with the term ageism in the citation (a title search yielded a simi-
lar pattern: 548, 249, and 68 articles, respectively). Clearly there has been
a pattern of underinterest in ageism research in the mainstream psycho-
logical literature.
But why the lack of interest? There are a myriad of possible reasons, but
perhaps the most obvious is that age prejudice is one of the most socially
condoned, institutionalized forms of prejudice in the world—especially
in the United States—today. For example, there is a whole industry in the
greeting card business built around the “over the hill” theme. Such cards
are often portrayed as humorous, but the essential message is that it is un-
desirable to get older. As you will see in reading the chapters of this book,
most Americans tend to have little tolerance for older persons and very
few reservations about harboring negative attitudes toward older people.
Whatever the reasons for the comparative dearth of theoretical and em-
pirical research on ageism among psychologists, it is clear that much
more research is sorely needed.