Relationship between Disease Avoidance and Attitudes toward Older People

Abstract

Negative attitudes toward older people persist, leading to the neglect and marginalization of older adults’ will. The social group of older people is often perceived as being overly associated with disease, and disease avoidance is related to negative attitudes. Meanwhile, people with higher disease avoidance tend to avoid others, not just older adults. Therefore, whether disease avoidance and attitudes toward older people have a significant relationship should be examined, even after controlling for attitudes toward general others (i.e., younger people) and other personality determinants of social interactions (i.e., extroversion, general trust). We conducted an online survey of Japanese participants (n = 962). The results showed that the relationship between higher disease avoidance and ageist attitudes was significant, even after controlling for the above variables. Psychological interventions that weaken the cognitive link between older adults and disease would effectively reduce ageism. The limitations and future directions of this study are discussed.