Hannah J. Swift

A Review and Meta-Analysis of Age-Based Stereotype Threat: Negative Stereotypes, Not Facts, Do the Damage

Stereotype threat effects arise when an individual feels at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about their group and consequently underperforms on stereotype relevant tasks (Steele, 2010). Among older people, underperformance across cognitive and physical tasks is hypothesized to result from age-based stereotype threat (ABST) because of negative age-stereotypes regarding older adults’ competence. The present review and meta-analyses examine 22 published and 10 unpublished articles, including 82 effect sizes (N = 3882) investigating ABST on older people’s (Mage = 69.5) performance. The analysis revealed a significant small-to-medium effect of ABST (d = .28) and important moderators of the effect size. Specifically, older adults are more vulnerable to ABST when (a) stereotype-based rather than fact-based manipulations are used (d = .52); (b) when performance is tested using cognitive measures (d = .36); and (c) occurs reliably when the dependent variable is measured proximally to the manipulation. The review raises important theoretical and methodological issues, and areas for future research.

Threat or Boost? Social Comparison Affects Older People’s Performance Differently Depending on Task Domain

OBJECTIVES In this research, we investigate whether social comparison with younger people can result in either a stereotype-based threat or boost in older peoples performance. METHODS Study 1 used nationally representative data to establish domains of performance in which older people are either stereotypically disadvantaged or advantaged relative to younger people. Study 2 was an experiment to test how a potentially threatening versus control versus enhancing comparison with younger people would affect performance in negatively and positively stereotyped task domains. RESULTS As predicted, compared with the control condition, stereotype threat caused performance decrements in both task domains. This effect was partially mediated by anxiety. Moreover, the enhancing social comparison boosted performance, but only on a crossword task, a task on which older peoples abilities are favorably stereotyped. DISCUSSION The research demonstrates that a threatening comparison can result in underperformance by older people both in negatively and positively self-stereotyped task domains. It also demonstrates that social comparison with younger people can enhance older peoples performance in a positively stereotyped task domain. The implications for creating circumstances likely to enable older people to achieve their full potential are discussed.

Revisiting the Paradox of Well-being: The Importance of National Context

OBJECTIVES Despite age-related changes or declines in circumstances, health or income, many older people are able to maintain subjective well-being (SWB) in later life. This is known as the paradox of well-being. To date, much research has focused on either individual- (e.g., age, health, and income) or country-level (e.g., national wealth, inequality) differences in SWB. The present research investigates how these levels combine, and whether the paradox of well-being persists across different economic contexts. METHOD This research uses the 2008-2009 European Social Survey to test the multilevel hypothesis that economic circumstances, reflected by a countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP), affect the paradox of well-being, that is, the relationship between age and SWB. Analyses also account for other relevant psychological, individual, and country differences. Possible avenues by which GDP affects SWB are also explored. RESULTS The multilevel analysis revealed that GDP disproportionally affects the SWB of older people relative to younger people, and that the paradox of well-being is only observed in countries with higher GDP. DISCUSSION The findings clarify the relationship between age and SWB by demonstrating that the paradox of well-being is conditional on the economic context. Implications for individual- and country-level strategies for successful aging are discussed.

Old and Unemployable? How Age‐Based Stereotypes Affect Willingness to Hire Job Candidates

Across the world, people are required, or want, to work until an increasingly old age. But how might prospective employers view job applicants who have skills and qualities that they associate with older adults? This article draws on social role theory, age stereotypes and research on hiring biases, and reports three studies using age‐diverse North American participants. These studies reveal that: (1) positive older age stereotype characteristics are viewed less favorably as criteria for job hire, (2) even when the job role is low‐status, a younger stereotype profile tends to be preferred, and (3) an older stereotype profile is only considered hirable when the role is explicitly cast as subordinate to that of a candidate with a younger age profile. Implications for age‐positive selection procedures and ways to reduce the impact of implicit age biases are discussed.

Are they half as strong as they used to be? An experiment testing whether age-related social comparisons impair older people's hand grip strength and persistence

Objective To assess how age-related social comparisons, which are likely to arise inadvertently or deliberately during assessments, may affect older peoples performance on tests that are used to assess their needs and capability. Design The study randomly assigned participants to a comparison with younger people or a no comparison condition and assessed hand grip strength and persistence. Gender, education, type of residence, arthritis and age were also recorded. Setting Age UK centres and seniors lunches in the South of England. Participants An opportunity sample of 56 adults, with a mean age of 82.25 years. Main outcomes measures Hand grip strength measured using a manual hand dynamometer and persistence of grip measured using a stopwatch. Results Comparison caused significantly worse performance measured by both strength (comparison =6.85 kg, 95% CI 4.19 kg to 9.5 kg, control group =11.07 kg, 95% CI 8.47 kg to 13.68 kg, OR =0.51, p=0.027) and persistence (comparison =8.36 s, 95% CI 5.44 s to 11.29 s; control group =12.57 s, 95% CI 9.7 s to 15.45 s, OR =0.49, p=0.045). These effects remained significant after accounting for differences in arthritis, gender, education and adjusting for population age norms. Conclusions Due to the potential for age comparisons and negative stereotype activation during assessment of older people, such assessments may underestimate physical capability by up to 50%. Because age comparisons are endemic, this means that assessment tests may sometimes seriously underestimate older peoples capacity and prognosis, which has implications for the way healthcare professionals treat them in terms of autonomy and dependency.

Perceived Age Discrimination as a Mediator of the Association Between Income Inequality and Older People’s Self-Rated Health in the European Region

OBJECTIVES The relative income hypothesis predicts poorer health in societies with greater income inequality. This article examines whether the psychosocial factors of perceived age discrimination and (lack of) social capital may help explain the adverse effect of inequality on older peoples health. METHODS Self-rated health, perceived age discrimination, and social capital were assessed in the 2008/9 European Social Survey (European Social Survey Round 4 Data, 2008). The Gini coefficient was used to represent national inequalities in income in each of the 28 European Social Survey countries. Mediation analyses (within a multilevel structural equation modeling paradigm) on a subsample of respondents over 70 years of age (N = 7,819) were used to examine whether perceived age discrimination mediates the negative effect of income inequality on older peoples self-rated health. RESULTS Perceived age discrimination fully mediated the associations between income inequality and self-rated health. When social capital was included into the model, only age discrimination remained a significant mediator and predictor of self-rated health. DISCUSSION Concrete instances of age discrimination in unequal societies are an important psychosocial stressor for older people. Awareness that the perception of ageism can be an important stressor and affect older patients self-reported health has important implications for the way health practitioners understand and treat the sources of patients health problems in later life.

‘Being old and ill’ across different countries: social status, age identification and older people’s subjective health

Objective: It has been suggested that the extent to which older adults identify with ‘old-age’ is associated with greater subjective ill-health. Based on social identity theory, we hypothesise that the societal social status of older people should moderate this relationship, such that the effect of age-identification on subjective health should be stronger in countries in which older people have lower social status. Design and main outcome measures: Subjective health, age identification and the perceived status of people over 70 were assessed in a subsample of older respondents (N = 6185) of the 2008/2009 European Social Survey. We examined whether country-level differences in the perceived status of older adults moderated the effect of age identification on subjective ill-health. Results: 20% of the total variance in older people’s subjective ill-health was due to country differences. The hypothesised cross-level interaction was significant in that the negative association between old age identification and subjective health was stronger in countries where the social status of older people is perceived to be lower. Conclusion: The results provide an important insight into being ascribed a higher social status is likely to have a protective function for older people.

Drinking in social groups. Does 'groupdrink' provide safety in numbers when deciding about risk?

Abstract Aims To investigate the impact of alcohol consumption on risk decisions taken both individually and while part of a four‐ to six‐person ad‐hoc group. Design A 2 (alcohol: consuming versus not consuming alcohol) × 2 (decision: individual, group) mixed‐model design; decision was a repeated measure. The dependent variable was risk preference, measured using choice dilemmas. Setting Opportunity sampling in campus bars and a music event at a campus‐based university in the United Kingdom. Participants A total of 101 individuals were recruited from groups of four to six people who either were or were not consuming alcohol. Measurements Participants privately opted for a level of risk in response to a choice dilemma and then, as a group, responded to a second choice dilemma. The choice dilemmas asked participants the level of accident risk at which they would recommend someone could drive while intoxicated. Findings Five three‐level multi‐level models were specified in the software program HLM 7. Decisions made in groups were less risky than those made individually (B = −0.73, P < 0.001). Individual alcohol consumers opted for higher risk than non‐consumers (B = 1.27, P = 0.025). A significant alcohol × decision interaction (B = −2.79, P = 0.001) showed that individual consumers privately opted for higher risk than non‐consumers, whereas risk judgements made in groups of either consumers or non‐consumers were lower. Decisions made by groups of consumers were less risky than those made by groups of non‐consumers (B = 1.23, P < 0.001). Conclusions Moderate alcohol consumption appears to produce a propensity among individuals towards increased risk‐taking in deciding to drive while intoxicated, which can be mitigated by group monitoring processes within small (four‐ to six‐person) groups.

What do older people think that others think of them, and does it matter? The role of meta-perceptions and social norms in the prediction of perceived age discrimination.

Psychological theories of aging highlight the importance of social context. However, very little research has distinguished empirically between older people’s perception of how others in their social context perceive them (personal meta-perceptions) and the shared perceptions in society (societal meta-perceptions). Drawing on theories of intergroup relations and stereotyping and using a multilevel perspective, this article examines how well older people’s perceptions of age discrimination (PAD) are predicted by (a) older people’s personal meta-perceptions, (b) societal meta-perceptions, and (c) social norms of intolerance toward age prejudice. Aging meta-perceptions are differentiated into the cognitive and affective components of ageism. Multilevel analyses of data from the European Social Survey (Nover 70 years of age = 8,123, 29 countries; European Social Survey (ESS) Round 4 Data, 2008) confirmed that older people’s personal meta-perceptions of negative age stereotypes and specific intergroup emotions (pity, envy, contempt) are associated with higher PAD. However, at the societal-level, only paternalistic meta-perceptions were consistently associated with greater PAD. The results show that a few meta-perceptions operate only as a psychological phenomenon in explaining PAD, some carry consonant, and others carry contrasting effects at the societal-level of analysis. This evidence extends previous research on aging meta-perceptions by showing that both the content of meta-perceptions and the level of analysis at which they are assessed make distinct contributions to PAD. Moreover, social norms of intolerance of age prejudice have a larger statistical effect than societal meta-perceptions. Social interventions would benefit from considering these differential findings.

Educational Methods Using Intergenerational Interaction to Fight Ageism

Contemporary societies allow interactions between three or more generations at the same time. However, the emergence of multigenerational societies does not necessarily guarantee the eradication of ageism or age-related stereotypes. In this new social landscape, the civic mission of higher education includes the expansion of the educational toolbox for future professionals with instruments devoted to improve communication between generations. In this chapter, we refer to the intergroup contact theory, which supports intergenerational contact between young and old, not as individuals of different ages who coincide in chronological time, but as members of a community from different generations, as it is framed in the generational intelligence educational model. After presenting the theoretical background, a particular intergenerational service learning methodology is proposed and a case study, developed at Fontys University of Applied Sciences and Summa College in Eindhoven is described. This methodology is based on instructing students, not only on technical contents of a discipline but also on developing communication skills between generations. This communication tries to empathize with the ideas, interests and feelings of other generations, potentially leading to a reduction of prejudice. The chapter ends with limitations and future proposals related to generational education as an effective tool against ageism.