Do Imagined Intergroup Contact Interventions and Metastereotyping Processes Interact to Predict Expectations for Future Inter-Age Interactions?

Abstract

ABSTRACT We examined whether imagining intergenerational contact and activating positive aging metastereotypes could enhance the quality of contact young adult participants anticipated having with older persons and attenuate expectations of communicative nonaccommodation by older adults. We also investigated the role of intergenerational trust in these processes. By increasing perceived trustworthiness, imagining intergenerational contact made young adults less prone to expect older people to nonaccommodate (i.e. communicate in a problematic way), compared to a control group. Relative to those in the metastereotype control condition, participants in the positive metastereotype manipulation anticipated less nonaccommodation from older adults.