Older adults are often stereotyped as having less technological ability than younger age groups. As a result, older individuals may avoid using technology due to stereotype threat, the fear of confirming negative stereotypes about their social group. The present research examined the role of stereotype threat within the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Across two studies, experiencing stereotype threat in the technological domain was indirectly associated with lower levels of technology use among older adults. This was found for subjective (Study 1) and objective measures (Study 2) of use behaviour, and for technology use in general (Study 1) and computer use in particular (Study 2). In line with the predictions of the Technology Acceptance Model, this relationship was mediated by anxiety, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and behavioural intention. Specifically, stereotype threat was negatively associated with perceived ease of use (Studies 1 and 2) and anxiety mediated this relationship (Study 2). These findings suggest that older adults underuse technology due to the threat of confirming ageist stereotypes targeting their age group. Stereotype threat may thus be an important barrier to technology acceptance and usage in late adulthood.
Besides having lower rates of technology adoption than the general population, older adults are commonly stereotyped as lacking technological ability. Stereotype threat, the fear of confirming negative stereotypes targeting their social group, may lead individuals to distance themselves from the stereotyped domain. This suggests that older adults may underuse computer technology due to stereotype threat. A sample of 86 community-dwelling older adults ( M age = 78.47, SD age = 7.92) participated in a two-wave longitudinal study aiming to examine the relationship between stereotype threat and computer use in this age group. An autoregressive cross-lagged panel analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling. As expected, stereotype threat predicted lower levels of computer use a year and a half later. In turn, computer use was unrelated to the later experience of stereotype threat in this domain. These findings suggest that stereotype threat may undermine computer adoption in late adulthood, thus contributing to perpetuate the digital inequalities between younger and older generations.
This study aims to explore age prejudice, and to examine age stereotyping in children and adolescents by adopting the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) as a theoretical framework. It was hypothesised that children are socialised into adopting an ambivalent representation of old age (socialisation hypothesis) and that this cognitive bias becomes weaker in adolescence due to greater cognitive maturity (developmental hypothesis). By analysing representative data from Portugal (European Social Survey; N = 2367), it was ascertained that the ambivalent age stereotype (higher evaluations of warmth than competence for older people) is indeed a shared social representation of older people in Portuguese society. A total of 103 Portuguese children (6-10 year olds) and adolescents (11-15 year olds) were then sampled from a local school and responded to age-appropriate measures assessing age prejudice as well as age stereotypes. Contrary to previous studies, the findings do not provide evidence for the existence of age prejudice because both children and adolescents reported positive feelings towards older people. However, the socialisation hypothesis was corroborated by showing that the ambivalent old age stereotype was already present in childhood. Contrary to the stipulated developmental hypothesis, the magnitude of this cognitive bias was very similar in adolescence.
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