Stereotyping, Prejudice and Ageism in Social Cognition

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Stereotyping, Prejudice and Ageism in Social
Cognition

• PS 277 Lecture 12

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Midcourse Feedback Comments

• Issues
• Slides up earlier
• Textbook is very detailed more tie-in between
  textbook and lectures
• More real-life examples in lecture
• More videos and guest speakers
• More exam practice and review
• Some people listed CSL problems
• Discussion groups mostly perceived very
  positively
• Most people wanted more discussions

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Outline

• Stereotyping and Age
• So What? Impact of Stereotypes on Attitudes and
  Behaviors at Three Levels
• Right Wing Authoritarianism and Social
  Collaboration in Older Adults
• Media Presentations of Age Differences

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What are Stereotypes?

• Stereotypes are general expectancies or attitudes
  about characteristics associated with membership
  in a category e.g., race, sex, age
• Stereotypes can limit attention to individuality
  
• Stereotypes can be positive or negative
• Can be distinguished from behaviors that may be
  linked to e.g., discrimination or ageism (e.g.,
  denying someone a job on basis of age because
  think older adults less capable)

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Darwins Struggle with Scientific Stereotypes

• Peoples from primitive cultures were seen as
  less cognitively able, even as less human, strong
  negative stereotypes during the 19th century in
  the social and biological sciences
• Darwin on the races of man Darwin made many
  observations on how sophisticated primitive
  people could be in his journals on the Voyage of
  the Beagle, but struggled mightily with how to
  understand this
• Some of the South American peoples, Fuegans, etc.
  were brought to England and treated as moderns
  impressive to see how much different they seemed

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Ageist Humour and Stereotypes on Aging (Bowd,
2003)

• Jokes often use stereotyped expectancies shared
  between teller and listener, widely shared across
  culture
• Several volumes of jokes were examined for aging
  stereotypes of both men and women less than 4
  of all jokes were focused on aging, more commonly
  about men than women
• Most common categories sex (70), declining
  health (15), declining cognitive function (10)
• Similar findings in analyses of the media
  presentation of older adults in general
  relatively rare in media, especially older women
  in comparison to population

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Some example stereotype categories from Bowd
(2003)

• Vain/virile male An old man tells the priest in
  confession Im 79, always faithful to my wife,
  never looked at another woman. But yesterday I
  made passionate love to 18 year old twins.
• Priest When did you last go to confession?
• Old man What confession? Im Jewish.
• Priest So why are you telling me?
• Im telling everybody.
• The insatiable older woman An older nun is
  walking home from the convent when a man jumps
  out the bushes and has his way with her. Then he
  says, What will you tell the Holy Father now,
  sister?
• She says I must tell the truth! Ill say I was
  walking home from the convent when a man jumped
  from the bushes and raped me three times unless
  youre too tired!

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An example memory joke

• Declining memory Two older fellows are playing
  cards on Saturday night as usual. Max usually
  gets help from his wife remembering what cards
  are what. At the end of the game, Ed says to
  Max, You did really well tonight, no help from
  the wife. How come?
• Well, ever since my wife sent me to that memory
  school, I havent had any problems at all.
• What memory school is that?
• Max thought a moment What do you call that
  pretty red flower, you know the one with the
  thorns?
• A rose?
• Yeah, thats it. Max turned to his wife and
  mumbled Hey Rose, whats the name of that
  school you sent me to?

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Multi Dimensional Aspects of Age Stereotypes
(Hummert)

• Negative severely impaired, despondent, shrew
  or curmudgeon, recluse
• Positive Golden agers, perfect grandparent,
  John Wayne conservative?
• These tend to be more elaborated and detailed for
  older adults than for younger

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Ryan et al. (2004) Study on Communication
Stereotypes of Aging Across Cultures

• Positive communication beliefs empathic, good
  storyteller, social skills, wise
• Negative communication beliefs rambling, poor
  hearing and memory, negative conversation
• Described a 25 or 75 year-old target person
• Tested these effects in Chinese and Canadians

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Results for Ryan et al. Study

• Biggest differences for Canadians in interaction
• True for both positive and negative traits,
  however Storytelling () vs. Hearing (-)
• Less age stereotyping in Chinese overall, but not
  more positive

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Possible Impact of Stereotyping on Ageism at
Society, Relationships, Individual Levels

• Societal Implications of Aging Stereotypes
  Current Issues
• Communication Process Models in Relationships
  Ryans Model
• Personal Implications

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Societal Level Ageism Issues

• Old people seen as ill, infirm, needy
• Pension benefits and current threats of economic
  collapse (e.g., auto sector)
• End of mandatory retirement older people keep
  working means?
• Can inflame tensions between generations what
  do you think?

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Relationship Level and Ageism

• Ellen Ryans Communication Predicament Model
• Rely on stereotyped ideas about aging to guide
  communication
• Creates power imbalance in relationships
• Undermines competent performance

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Ryans Communication Predicament Model
encounter with older person
recognition of old age cues
negative changes in rigidity of cues
stereotyped expectations
loss of personal control and self esteem
lessened psychological activity and social
interaction
modified speech behavior toward the older person
reinforcement for age stereotyped behaviors
constrained opportunities for communication
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Patronizing Speech to Older Adults

• Patronizing speech simple vocabulary, short
  sentences, loud and slow speech, diminutives
  (sweetie), high pitch sounds like baby talk!
• More common in some situations than others
• Do you hear this in your placement settings?

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Hummert et al. (1998) Relations Between
Stereotypes and Talk

• Two different types of older adults golden ager
  vs. despondent (presented in pictures)
• In two different settings (nursing home,
  apartment)
• Participants (young, middle aged, older)
  presented a persuasive message to person
• Messages Judged as Affirming, Directive or
  Nurturing (both directive and nurturing seen as
  negative or patronizing)

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Overall Percentage Message Reported by Stereotype
Given
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Age X Target Use of Positive (Affirming)
Communication
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Individual Effects of Stereotypes

• Stereotype threat fear of being judged in
  accordance with a negative stereotype about a
  group to which one belongs.
• May result in performance deficits e.g., work
  on race and cognitive performance by Steele
• Levy (1996) implicit priming of older adults
  with senile vs wise terms presented briefly on
  the computer
• There were some memory performance deficits in
  older adults after activation of senile
  stereotype, but this did not work with young
• Study has not been consistently replicated

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Collaborative Cognition and Social Attitudes

• Do people get more rigid and simpler in their
  thinking and attitudes as they age?
• Might there be individual differences in the
  impact of others on our attitudes and beliefs in
  later life?
• Collaborative thinking may help us to think of
  personal issues in more complex ways, as we noted
  before in wisdom section (Baltes Staudinger)
• People who say they consult more about solving
  personal problems also report being more
  satisfied with how these problems were resolved

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An Example of Using Consultation to Increase
Complexity?

• 70 year-old woman The lady next door to me was
  a very dear friend, and I used to help her quite
  a bit because she couldnt go up and down stairs.
  We became good friends, and when she moved away,
  I felt a great loss. I used to talk to her quite
  a bit, and she made me realize my own problems
  werent so bad. She helped me see the other side
  of thingsAnd now when things come up, I dont
  just jump to the conclusion that this is what
  its like. I think, well, maybe this or that,
  and then I decide.

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Authoritarianism and the RWA

• Altemeyer has developed and studied the Right
  Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) Scale
• E.g., "Our country desperately needs a mighty
  leader who will do what has to be done to destroy
  the radical new ways and sinfulness that are
  ruining us.
• People who are high on this construct are more
  likely to demonstrate simplistic thinking and
  also more likely to be prejudiced in many
  contexts

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Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians (2006)
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Individual Variability in Collaborative Thinking
and Rigidity (Pratt Norris, 1999)

• Older adults more likely overall to say that they
  got less consultation and support from others in
  solving their personal moral dilemmas
• This effect was largely the result of higher
  levels of authoritarianism in older adult samples
  (Pratt Norris, 1999)
• Authoritarian adults say they consult less with
  others, and their solutions to everyday problems
  tended to be simpler and more black and white
• May be that older adults who are high in
  authoritarianism are prone to simplify their
  perspectives and avoid consulting with others who
  might disagree, whereas those who are less
  authoritarian do not experience this
  simplification process as much

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Media and Aging The Dove Campaign for Real
Beauty
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Does this campaign address the issue?

• Dove is pro age. Dove believes that beauty has
  no age limit.
• Or is Dove selling products by exploiting womens
  fear of being exploited?
• http//www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/flat4.asp?id
  7133