Lecture 14: Antisocial behs: age discrimination + its reduction

Question 1

what is age discrimination?

Answer 1

negative beh directed towards person based on age

Question 2

why focus on ageism towards elderly?

Answer 2

• australia pop. ageing

- most institutionalised forms of prejudice

Question 3

old people=

Answer 3

unavoidable + permanent group category

Question 4

what is elderly stereotype

Answer 4

media–> burden, frail, poor, sick, grumpy, slow, helpless

Question 5

what are stereotypes among employers

Answer 5

• older employees= less effective
• harder to train, out-dated
• poor hearing
• not smart
• slower cog. functions

Question 6

when old people become to believe and act accordingly to stereotypes

Answer 6

= reinforces maintenance of such stereotypes + negative treatment of older people

Question 7

but in reality, what are old people like?

Answer 7

• more productive
• lower absenteesim + turnover rates than younger workers (employed at 50= older workers will stay with their company longer, than 25 yrs old)
• older employees= don’t suffer from poorer health, declined mental abilities

Question 8

Fiske et al: stereotype content model

Answer 8

• asked to rate 24 social groups on lists of traits reflecting warmth + competence
  found: perceived warmth= elderly group were above 96% of other groups– but on competence= fell below 78% of other groups
• warm but incompetent

Question 9

Fiske et al: cross-cultural research

Answer 9

found: data from HK, japan, south korea, israel= seen as warm + incompetent– more pity than other groups– increases helplessness, more admiration

Question 10

Fiske et al: warm but incompetent: beh outcomes

Answer 10

• warmth correlated positively w/ helping

- competence correlated negatively with social exclusion

Question 11

perceptions of discrimination=

Answer 11

increase ingroup identity for those in low status groups

= so group identification can get rid of negative effects of discrimination on wellbeing

Question 12

what are strategies to reduce ageism

Answer 12

• age discrimination act (2004)
• education programs
• intergroup contact strategies

Question 13

• education programs

Answer 13

• • attitudes towards elderly increased significantly from time 1 to time 2 (for 146 students)
• increase awareness of ageist behs, spread actual info about ageism– could counteract stereotype

Question 14

• intergroup contact strategies

Answer 14

• contact with out-group= reduces prejudice
• Bousefield + Hutchison (2010): does contact with elderly improve young people’s attitudes + behavioural intentions?
  
  • IV: previous contact quantity + quality
  • DV: attitudes + beh intentions
  • results: high quality contact rather than quantity of
    contact–> + associated with young people’s attitudes +
    beh intentions towards elderly

Question 15

• age discrimination act (2004)

Answer 15

• protects all casual + permanent employees against age discrimination
• can call aus human rights if you feel that your age is being judged

Question 16

• negative age stereotyping affects beh 3x larger than positive age stereotypes= so reduction strategies need to

Answer 16

counter - stereotypes (ex. incompetent) and promote + age stereotypes (ex. wisdom, experience)

Question 17

• imagined contact

Answer 17

Turner, crisp, lambert ( 2007)

• randomly allocated: imagined or control
• asked to rate preference for young -young or young-elderly pairing in conversation study
• results: imagining out-group contact= reduced bias– improvements in explicit + implicit measures