Ageism This Page Intentionally Left Blank 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 This Page Intentionally Left Blank 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.