Effects of implied attitude similarity on stereotype of aging: a pilot study.

Abstract

A negative stereotype about the aged has been found in many studies using the Attitudes Toward Old People Scale (Tuckman & Lorge, 1952). Only recently has this stereotype been investigated experimentally. In a study by Bell and Stanfield (1973) two college groups heard a tape-recorded lecture on ecology by a stimulus person described as being either 25 or 65 yr. Differential ratings of the stimulus person showed no significant effects as a result of age designation. Bell and Stanfield concluded that age designation is not sufficient to condition stereotyped judgments about old people, but rather some external characteristics of old people themselves probably influence these judgments, such as gray hair, wrinkles, etc. The present authors believe that implied similarity in attitudes and interests may have operated as an independent variable in the Bell and Stanfield study, since ecology is popular with college groups. In a direct test of this interpretation, it was hypothesized that a photograph of a 65-yr.-old man which portrayed him with contemporary dress style and artistic interests would elicit more positive evaluations by college students than would a stereotype photograph of the same man. Forty graduate students in psychology at Catholic University (mean age, 29) were randomly divided into two experimental groups (ns = 14 and 15) and one control ( n = 11) . The experimental groups were each given only one of a pair of photographs of the same man whose age was given as 65 yr. N o other information was provided. In the stereotypic photograph the man wore checked shirt, hair parted in the middle, and sat at a checker board with traditional pictures on the background wall. In the other, he wore turtleneck shirt and contemporary hair style, and sat at an art easel with contemporary prints on the wall. All other variables were held as constant as possible across rhc two conditions, including facial expression and posture, and the total cost of the props used. The control group simply rated men approximately 65 yr. old. Ratings were made on 88 Tuckman-Lorge (1952) stereotyped items converted to a 4-choice Likert-type format (is grouchy, meddles in other people's affairs, etc.). As hypothesized, the contemporary photograph influenced more positive evaluations (less acceptance of the stereotype) than the stereotype photograph (M = 212.20 2 23.37; M = 243.42 2 28.44; tn = 3.23, p < .01) and the control rating scale ( M = 240.81 k 35.09; 124 = 2.49, p < .05). Apparently neither age designation nor age specific characteristics (such as wrinkles) are sufficient determinants of the stereotype of aging. Young people may generally infer conservative or rigid attitudes and interests contrary to their own from out-dated clothing and modest social activ~t~es of older persons, many of whom must live on a reduced income, contributing to a ncgatlve response set toward them.