Intergenerational Contact Predicts Attitudes Toward Older Adults Through Inclusion of the Outgroup in the Self.

Abstract

With our rapidly aging population, it is critical to understand biases toward older people and what can be done to reduce ageism. Intergenerational contact can improve attitudes towards older people, but the effect of inclusion of outgroups in the self (IOS) in the context of intergenerational contact remains unexplored. In addition, stereotypes of warmth and incompetence may be affected differently by contact experiences and have different roles in effecting change in ageist attitudes. In this study, we modeled the relationships between intergenerational contact, IOS, and stereotypes of warmth and incompetence in predicting attitudes towards older adults in a young community sample (n = 302; 18-30-year olds). We found that positive contact with one older adult reduced incompetence stereotypes both directly and through an increase in IOS, and both the increase in IOS and the decrease in incompetence stereotypes predicted better attitudes towards older adults. Incompetence stereotypes were a stronger predictor of age-related attitudes than warmth stereotypes. This suggests that interventions aimed at improving ageist attitudes through intergenerational contact should focus primarily on disconfirming incompetence stereotypes instead of merely increasing warmth perceptions, which could be done in part by increasing cognitive overlap with older adults.