The purpose of this study was to investigate whether elementary pupils stereotype older people and, more specifically, whether they stereotype them by sex. Photographs of a young woman and man and an old woman and man were shown to the subjects. Subjects were then asked to select the adjective from each of five pairs of adjectives which best described the person, such as happy or sad. Then subjects were asked six questions designed to assess their willingness to associate socially with the persons depicted in the photographs. Subjects selected more negative adjectives to describe photographs of the older persons than younger persons, with the old man receiving more negative responses than the old woman. Girls were as willing to associate with the older as the younger persons, but boys were much less willing to associate with the elderly.
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