Abstract
Caring is a positive social act, but can it result in negative attitudes towards those cared for, and towards others from their wider social group? Based on intergroup contact theory, we tested whether care workers' (CWs) positive and negative contact with old‐age care home residents (CHRs) predicts prejudiced attitudes towards that group, and whether this generalises to other older people. Fifty‐six CWs were surveyed about their positive and negative contact with CHRs and their blatant and subtle attitudes (humanness attributions) towards CHRs and older adults. We tested indirect paths from contact with CHRs to attitudes towards older adults via attitudes towards CHRs. Results showed that neither positive nor negative contact generalised blatant ageism. However, the effect of negative, but not positive, contact on the denial of humanness to CHRs generalised to subtle ageism towards older adults. This evidence has practical implications for management of CWs' work experiences and theoretical implications, suggesting that negative contact with a subgroup generalises the attribution of humanness to superordinate groups. Because it is difficult to identify and challenge subtle prejudices such as dehumanisation, it may be especially important to reduce negative contact. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Highlights
Positive contact experienced with care home residents (CHRs) (M = 30.71, SD = 10.31) was significantly higher than negative contact (M = 7.27, SD = 6.39), t (54) = 11.73, p < .001, Cohen’s d = 1.58
Consistent with intergroup contact theory, positive contact was negatively correlated with blatant ageism towards CHRs and older adults
Negative contact was positively correlated with all types of ageism towards CHRs and the denial of uniquely human traits to older adults (Table 1)
Summary
Tackling institutional age discrimination requires a better understanding of the experiences of those that work in these organisations and the contact they have with older people. Using the social psychological theory of intergroup contact as a framework (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006), the current study explores how CWs’ prior interactions with CHRs, both positive and negative, relate to their attitudes towards CHRs and whether these attitudes might generalise to older people more widely. Meta-analytic evidence has established that positive contact reduces prejudice towards a range of social groups, including age groups (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). There is a lack of evidence to suggest that these findings are generalisable to health and social care contexts where older adults are more likely to be dependent upon their younger counterparts
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