Stereotyping, Prejudice and Ageism in Social Cognition

PS 277 – Lecture 12

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

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

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)

Darwin’s 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

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

Some example stereotype categories from Bowd (2003): Vain/virile male: An old man tells the priest in

confession: I’m 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? I’m Jewish. Priest: So why are you telling me? I’m 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! I’ll say I was walking home from the convent when a man jumped from the bushes and raped me three times – unless you’re too tired!”

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 haven’t 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, that’s it.” Max turned to his wife and mumbled:

“Hey Rose, what’s the name of that school you sent me to?”

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

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

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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1

2

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Story-CH

Story-CA

Age 25

Age 75

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

Stereotypes – Current Issues

Communication Process Models in Relationships –Ryan’s Model

Personal Implications

Societal Level Ageism Issues

Old people seen as “ill, infirm, needy”Old people seen as “ill, infirm, needy”

Pension benefits and current threats of Pension benefits and current threats of economic collapse (e.g., auto sector)economic collapse (e.g., auto sector)

End of mandatory retirement: older people keep End of mandatory retirement: older people keep working means…?working means…?

Can inflame tensions between generations; Can inflame tensions between generations; what do you think?what do you think?

Relationship Level and Ageism

Ellen Ryan’s Communication Ellen Ryan’s Communication Predicament ModelPredicament Model

Rely on stereotyped ideas about aging to Rely on stereotyped ideas about aging to guide communicationguide communication Creates power imbalance in relationshipsCreates power imbalance in relationships Undermines competent performanceUndermines competent performance

recognition of old age cues

stereotyped expectations

modified speechbehaviortoward the older person

reinforcement for agestereotypedbehaviors

constrained opportunitiesfor communication

lessenedpsychological activity and

social interaction

lossof personal control and

self esteem

negativechanges inrigidity of cues

encounterwith older person

Ryan’s Communication Predicament Model

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?

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)

Overall Percentage Message Reported by Stereotype Given

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10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Despond Golden

Affirm

Direct

Nurture

Age X Target Use of Positive (Affirming) Communication

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10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Young Middle Older

Golden

Despond

Individual Effects of Stereotypes Stereotype threat: Stereotype threat: fear of being judged in fear of being judged in

accordance with a negative stereotype about a accordance with a negative stereotype about a group to which one belongs.group to which one belongs.

May result in performance deficits – e.g., work on May result in performance deficits – e.g., work on race race and cognitive performance by Steeleand cognitive performance by Steele

Levy (1996): implicit priming of older adults with Levy (1996): implicit priming of older adults with senilesenile vs vs wisewise terms presented briefly on the terms presented briefly on the computer computer

There were some memory performance deficits There were some memory performance deficits in older adults after activation of senile in older adults after activation of senile stereotype, but this did not work with young stereotype, but this did not work with young

Study has not been consistently replicated Study has not been consistently replicated

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

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 couldn’t 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 weren’t so bad. She helped me see the other side of things…And now when things come up, I don’t just jump to the conclusion that this is what it’s like. I think, well, maybe this or that, and then I decide.”

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

Bob Altemeyer – The Authoritarians (2006)

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

Media and Aging: The Dove Media and Aging: The Dove Campaign for Real BeautyCampaign for Real Beauty

Does this campaign address Does this campaign address the issue?the issue?

““Dove is pro age. Dove believes that Dove is pro age. Dove believes that beauty has no age limit.”beauty has no age limit.”

Or is Dove selling products by exploiting Or is Dove selling products by exploiting women’s fear of being exploited?women’s fear of being exploited?

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/flat4.asp?id=7133flat4.asp?id=7133