Michael S. North

An inconvenienced youth? Ageism and its potential intergenerational roots.

Age is the only social category identifying subgroups that everyone may eventually join. Despite this and despite the well-known growth of the older population, age-based prejudice remains an understudied topic in social psychology. This article systematically reviews the literature on ageism, highlighting extant research on its consequences and theoretical perspectives on its causes. We then identify a crucial gap in the literature, potential intergenerational tensions, speculating how a growing-older population-and societys efforts to accommodate it-might stoke intergenerational fires, particularly among the younger generation. Presenting both sides of this incipient issue, we review relevant empirical work that introduces reasons for both optimism and pessimism concerning intergenerational relations within an aging society. We conclude by suggesting future avenues for ageism research, emphasizing the importance of understanding forthcoming intergenerational dynamics for the benefit of the field and broader society.

Act Your (Old) Age: Prescriptive, Ageist Biases Over Succession, Consumption, and Identity

Perspectives on ageism have focused on descriptive stereotypes concerning what older people allegedly are. By contrast, we introduce prescriptive stereotypes that attempt to control how older people should be: encouraging active Succession of envied resources, preventing passive Consumption of shared resources, and avoidance of symbolic, ingroup identity resources. Six studies test these domains, utilizing vignette experiments and simulated behavioral interactions. Across studies, younger (compared with middle-aged and older) raters most resented elder violators of prescriptive stereotypes. Moreover, these younger participants were most polarized toward older targets (compared with middle-aged and younger analogues)—rewarding elders most for prescription adherences and punishing them most for violations. Taken together, these findings offer a novel approach to ageist prescriptions, which disproportionately target older people, are most endorsed by younger people, and suggest how elders shift from receiving the default prejudice of pity to either prescriptive resentment or reward.

A Prescriptive Intergenerational-Tension Ageism Scale: Succession, Identity, and Consumption (SIC)

We introduce a novel ageism scale, focusing on prescriptive beliefs concerning potential intergenerational tensions: active, envied resource succession, symbolic identity avoidance, and passive, shared-resource consumption (SIC). Four studies (2,010 total participants) were used to develop the scale. Exploratory factor analysis formed an initial 20-item, 3-factor solution (Study 1). The scale converges appropriately with other prejudice measures and diverges from other social control measures (Study 2). It diverges from antiyouth ageism (Study 3). The Study 4 experiment yielded both predictive and divergent validity apropos another ageism measure. Structural equation modeling confirmed model fit across all studies. Per an intergenerational-tension focus, younger people consistently scored the highest. As generational equity issues intensify, the scale provides a contemporary tool for current and future ageism research.

Measures of Stereotyping and Prejudice: Barometers of Bias

Twenty-first century intergroup biases are more automatic, ambivalent, and ambiguous than were old-fashioned biases such as authoritarianism and overt racism, which overtly expressed intergroup hostility. Beyond traditional self-report measures of ethnocentrism and hostile sexism, current measures tap more subtle manifestations of bias. Social dominance orientation assesses beliefs about the desirability of group hierarchies and predicts social attitudes such as ethnocentrism. The stereotype content model maps societal groups’ stereotypes, based on perceived social structure, predicting emotional prejudices and discriminatory tendencies. Recent racism measures tap modern policy-related attitude configurations, relatively automatic associations between groups and evaluations, and indirect indicators of intergroup attitudes. Current sexism scales assess modern versions oriented toward policies and an ambivalent version separating benevolence and hostility. Ageism scales measure both modern beliefs and prescriptive ambivalence toward older people. Current measures are less direct than earlier ones, consistent with 21st century patterns.

The Future in Inequality

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