I recently published a Newsletter on “Dealing with Ageism” (Newsletter #177). I suggested that ageism might be partly explained by differences in perception. I have had many replies, for and against this idea. I thought it worthwhile to return in detail to the topic.
A Five-Minute Read
Does your Attitude to Ageing influence your perception of Ageism?
This was the question that provoked an interesting study. It used cross sectional data from over 15,000 people. It also used longitudinal data to look at the direction of causation. Does ageism influence your perception of ageing negatively ? Or do your positive perceptions of ageing reduce your perceptions of ageism?
They measured discrimination not ageism. They used a well-known scale of “Everyday Discrimination”. For different contexts respondents are asked how frequently:
“You are treated with less courtesy or respect than other people”.
“You receive poorer service than other people at …..”.
“You receive poorer service or treatment than other people from ………”
“People act as if they think you are not smart”.
“People act as if they are afraid of you”.
“You are threatened or harassed.”
They used a range of contexts including restaurants, stores, doctors and hospitals. 61% of people responded with one or more incidents. There was a lot of perceived discrimination.
They then asked each respondent to articulate why, they thought, they were being treated in this way. They were offered a list of 11 different reasons. These include most of the common forms of discrimination. Included were national origin, gender, race, age, religion, weight, physical disability, other aspect of physical appearance, sexual orientation, financial status. Respondent were allowed to choose more than one cause. They also used a standard questionnaire to measure attitudes to ageing. This measures how positive or negative you are to the process of your ageing.
Perceived Discrimination and Age
Perceived discrimination decreases with age. This is surprising but don’t forget this is a perception. Their data is very clear that as we age, we perceive less discrimination or unfairness. In the 50’s age group something over 70% feel that they are being discriminated against. By the 80’s it is just over 50%. One might expect that as people look older they might suffer more not less ageism. Do people become less sensitive to ageist attacks as they age? Does their wisdom defend them?
What is more interesting is the attribution. Why do we think this is happening to us? As we age, we attribute a greater and greater percentage of the reason to our age. Attributions including age in some way increase from 20% in our 50’s to 30% in our 80’s. We attribute less and less of the discrimination we perceive to other causes. It is well known that some people are discriminating against on multiple grounds. There is some kind of multiplier effect. Even so age starts to predominate in peoples minds. It is impossible to know why. Whether this is because there are greater and greater acts of overt ageism, or we become more aware of our age.
What we think of ageing has an impact
Do our perceptions of age discrimination depend on our own attitudes towards ageing? As the chart below shows very well, it does. There are individuals who do not perceive any discrimination. They have the most positive attitudes towards their own ageing. The lower your score the more likely you are to perceive discrimination. To a lesser extent, the lower the score the more you attribute it to your ageing. They included other variables to check this relationship. Perceived age discrimination is known to be related to less education, living alone, and illness. Even allowing for these other variables, the relationship with attitude to ageing still holds.
There is an interesting impact of age. They analysed the relationships by age group as the chart shows. We already know that as we age our positive attitudes to our ageing decline. We are increasingly coping with the impacts of age. This is visible in the fall in the absolute numbers as age increases. The pattern however remains. However attitudes to ageing has a much bigger effect in the 50’s age group. The authors offer an explanation. This is the age at which individuals first have to come to terms with becoming old.
Cause and Effect
The sample was drawn from a longitudinal study. They could look at the changes for each individual as they aged. They looked at two points in time 2010 and 2014. An individual’s attitude to ageing predicted their perceived discrimination four years later. A positive attitude in 2010 predicted a lower perceived discrimination in 2014.
The relationship is however two way. Perceived discrimination in 2010 led to a lower attitude to ageing in 2014. (Even allowing for a gradual decline due to ageing). Everyday acts of discrimination can impact an individual’s attitudes to their own ageing. I have discussed in other Newsletters how important those attitudes are. They have been shown to be directly related to future health and to how long we live.
A Different Way to Fight Ageism
What this study provides is an alternative way of tackling ageism. Our attitudes towards ageing can provide a sheild against ageism. We need to reinforce a positive view of ageing. We can, and should, try to stop everyday ageism. More than that we can fight the negative age stereotypes directly.
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