Bolstering and Undercutting Use of the Elderly Stereotype Through Communication of Exemplars: The Role of Speaker Age and Exemplar Stereotypicality

Abstract

This study explores how older speakers' descriptions of other older persons might attenuate or bolster the use of the elderly stereotype by young listeners. Older women's descriptions were expected to have more impact on young participants, presumably because older persons are considered experts about elderly persons and the elderly persons seem unlikely to have a hidden agenda in describing other elderly persons. Using a 2-experiment ploy, young adult women initially listened to an audiotape of an older woman or a younger woman describing 3 older persons in her life in either a stereotypic or counterstereotypic manner. In the alleged second experiment, participants acquired information about an older woman and formed an impression of her. Results supported our hypotheses: Participants exposed to an older woman speaking counterstereotypically about her peers formed less stereotypic impressions of a subsequently encountered older woman than participants exposed to the stereotypic descriptions. When a younger woman presented the initial descriptions, there was no difference in the subsequent impressions. EXEMPLARS AND INDIVIDUATIONStereotypes are cognitive structures containing information about a social group including specific attributes associated with that group (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). Generally, individuation involves a relatively careful and systematic approach to

In the eye of the beholder: Can counter-stereotypes change perceptions of older adults’ social status?

“…Previous research has shown that the assumptions people make about a group can be challenged by presentation of counter-stereotypic members of that group (e.g., Dasgupta & Asgari, 2004; Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2001; Duval et al, 2000; Plant et al, 2009). Counter-stereotype interventions in aging to date have focused on likability and general stereotypes as targets (Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2001; Duval et al, 2000).…”

“…Previous research has shown that the assumptions people make about a group can be challenged by presentation of counter-stereotypic members of that group (e.g., Dasgupta & Asgari, 2004; Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2001; Duval et al, 2000; Plant et al, 2009). Counter-stereotype interventions in aging to date have focused on likability and general stereotypes as targets (Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2001; Duval et al, 2000). The present research instead focuses on social status to suggest that both cultural exposure to older adults in prestigious positions and manipulated exposure in an experimental setting predicts a smaller discrepancy between how participants view middle-aged adults compared with older adults’ social status.…”

“…They found slightly less negative implicit attitudes toward older adults following the intervention. Similarly, Duval, Ruscher, Welsh, and Catanese (2000) showed that participants who listened to an older woman speaking counter-stereotypically about her peers—for example mentioning that she was immature and trim—formed less stereotypical impressions of a subsequently encountered older woman as compared with participants who had listened to an older woman describing her peers in a stereotypical manner. Because counter-stereotypes have not been widely explored in relation to perceptions of aging and not at all, to our knowledge, in relation to social status, our goal was to examine how age-related counter-stereotypes may shape perceptions of older adults’ social status.…”

Hoist on your own petard: When prejudiced remarks are recognized and backfire on speakers

“…These attitudes, and the stereotypes they engender, ''are not developed or expressed in a social vacuum,'' but rather, tend to be communicated to others (Ruscher, 2001, p. 44). The communication of prejudice is especially harmful because prejudiced attitudes obtained second-hand tend to be stronger than their original sources (Duval, Ruscher, Welsh, & Cantanese, 2000), and those who express stereotypes are more likely to think stereotypically about their targets in the future (Ruscher & Duval, 1998). Thus, as Greenberg and Pyszczynski (1985) so well put it, when these attitudes are communicated, they ''spread like a social disease,'' and magnify the resultant harm.…”