Prejudice and stereotypic thinking among the elderly
The term stereotype is often connected with ignorant beliefs such as “racism”, “homophobia”, and “sexism”. Despite the overtly negative connotation, stereotypes are simply expectations we hold about groups of people (Moskowitz, 2005, p.440). However, stereotyping can lead to prejudice. Although everyone stereotypes, some people are more prone to being prejudice than others, especially older individuals (Radvansky et al., 2010). It is widely held that the link between age and prejudice is attributed to the fact that older people grew up in a more prejudiced era, and their attitudes are a reflection of a less tolerant time. However, recent studies suggest otherwise. Inspired by Devine’s influential 1989 study showing that prejudice is caused by a failure to inhibit stereotypic thoughts, modern researchers theorize that a decline in inhibitory function causes older people to be more likely to make and maintain stereotypes. For years, the dominant belief was that prejudice is inevitable as long as stereotypes exist because it was thought that stereotypes are automatically applied to a social group (Devine, 1989). However, this theory does not explain why knowledge of a stereotype is not correlated with prejudice. A study conducted by Devine in 1989 resolved the discrepancy by proposing that while stereotypes are automatically activated, prejudice is due to a failure to inhibit stereotypic thoughts. In the first experiment, white participants were subliminally flashed a list where either 80% or 20% of words were related to African American stereotypes. They were then asked to read about and rate an individual. Although the word hostile was never flashed, both low and high prejudice participants judged the individual to be hostile if they were presented with stereotype related words 80% of the time. The results suggest that stereotypes are triggered regardless of the desire to control for them. In a second experiment, high and low prejudice groups were asked to list their thoughts on African Americans anonymously. Analysis found that 60% of high prejudice individuals listed hostility related themes. In contrast, only 9% of low prejudice participants included hostility themes. The results indicate that while stereotypes are automatically triggered, low prejudice individuals actively inhibited those thoughts and replace them with more egalitarian beliefs. The change in zeitgeist following Devine’s study paved the way for a reexamination of the link between aging and prejudice. According to many classic theorists, older people are more likely to be prejudiced because they hold more stereotypic beliefs (Radvansky et al., 2010). However, Devine’s 1989 study showed that there could be an alternate explanation to the correlation between age and prejudice. The hypothesis that elderly people exhibit greater prejudiced due to a deficit in the ability to inhibit stereotypes was explored in a study by von Hippel, Silver, & Lynch (2000). Young adults and elderly participants were asked to read only the italicized sentences in a paragraph to measure inhibitory ability. They were then administered scales designed to measure subtle forms of racism, and the desire to suppress prejudice. The results showed that inhibitory ability diminished with age, and low inhibition was correlated with higher scores on the prejudice scale. Surprisingly, the scientists discovered that age was positively correlated with the motivation to control prejudice. The findings suggests that although the elderly are more motivated than younger people to control their prejudices, their diminished inhibitory ability results in increased prejudice. Thus, Devine’s inhibition theory of prejudice was further supported, and a new theory about the relationship between aging and prejudice was introduced.
Although the study by von Hippel, Silver, & Lynch (2000) provided evidence for inhibitory ability as a mediator of increased prejudice in older adults, there still remained the question of where in the information processing sequence inhibition of stereotypes occurred. A study by Radvansky et al. (2010) examined the possibility that stereotypic inferences and subsequent inhibition occurred at the point of comprehension. Younger adults and older adults were asked to read stories relevant to different ethnic groups. While reading, they were interrupted at critical points by lexicon decision probes that asked if the probe was a real word. Results showed that younger adults reacted significantly slower than older adults in response to stereotype probes that referred to stereotype inferences from the text. The shorter decision time in older adults implies that stereotype inferences were being drawn during comprehension. Furthermore, the longer reaction time in young participants is consistent with Devine’s (1989) theory that low-prejudiced individuals inhibit their stereotype inferences. The findings lend greater confidence to the hypothesis first proposed by von Hippel, Silver, & Lynch (2000), and adds to the understanding by suggesting prejudice is a failure to inhibit stereotypes while encoding information.
Modern studies are challenging the dated theory that seniors are perceived to be more prejudiced because they are clinging to the attitudes of a less tolerant era. Contrary to popular belief, the elderly are often just as motivated as the younger generation to control their prejudices. Unfortunately, it is theorized that prejudice is moderated by our ability to inhibit stereotypic thoughts during encoding. Thus, despite a desire to be non-prejudiced, older people show greater prejudice than younger people due to an impaired ability to inhibit stereotypic inferences. As the current population ages, the viewpoint suggested by recent studies will be increasingly important for developing strategies to reduce prejudice in our societies.

References

Devine, P.G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of personality and social psychology. 56. 5-18

Moskowitz, G.B. (2005). Social Cognition: Understanding self and others. New York: The Guildford Press.

Radvansky, G.A., Copeland, D.E., von Hippel, W. (2010). Stereotype activation, inhibition, and aging. Journal od experimental social psychology. 46. 51-60.

von Hippel, W., Silver, L.A., Lynch, M.E. (2000). Stereotyping against your will: The role of inhibitory ability in stereotyping and prejudice among the elderly. Personality and social psychology bulletin. 26. 523-532.