Stereotype Threat Impairs Older Adult Driving

Abstract

SummaryStereotypes can harm human performance, especially when activated in individuals with diminished working memory capacity (WMC). Performance implications for the stereotype of poor driving in older adults were investigated. Using a sample of older adults, WMC (the ability to maintain task goals and ignore distractions) and driving performance [brake reaction time (RT), following distance, and crashes] were assessed, the latter using a high‐fidelity simulator. Elderly participants under stereotype threat with reduced WMC exhibited slower brake RTs and longer following distances compared with a control condition that was not threatened. This driving profile was characteristic of cognitive distraction. Stereotype threat has clear consequences for human performance in a common real‐world task—driving—that is critical to public safety. Furthermore, these findings suggest caution in how the media and public policy communicate information about older adult driving.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Examination of Age-Based Stereotype Threat About Cognitive Decline

“…This leads them to be more cautious and risk averse (e.g., Crowe & Higgins, 1997). In line with this, older adults under stereotype threat respond more slowly (Popham & Hess, 2015a; see also Abrams et al, 2006; Lambert et al, 2015) and are more risk averse in their decision making (Coudin & Alexopoulos, 2010). Furthermore, although stereotype threat is often associated with the cost of remembering fewer correct answers, it also comes with the benefit of reducing older adults’ memory errors (Barber & Mather, 2013b; Popham & Hess, 2015a; Wong & Gallo, 2015; but see Thomas & Dubois, 2011).…”

Investigating risk-taking and executive functioning as predictors of driving performances and habits: a large-scale population study with on-road evaluation

“…Among participants with a low risk-taking tendency, this increased caution induced by the presence of the driving instructor might have become “unsafe,” or at least maladjusted to the context. Previous studies have observed impaired driving performances due to being overly cautious in investigations of stereotypes among older drivers ( Joanisse et al, 2012 ; Lambert et al, 2016 ). While we presently cannot verify if non-risk-takers showed signs of overly cautious driving, our findings do suggest an overall more complex relationship between risk-taking tendency and driving performance in an ecological context of on-road driving.…”

Enhancing Older Drivers’ Safety: On Effects Induced by Stereotype Threat to Older Adults’ Driving Performance, Working Memory and Self-Regulation

“…In the context of driving, older adults have not only been found to be subject to stereotype threat [33], but also, consistently with the stereotype threat literature, older drivers under stereotype threat made more errors than drivers of the control group during a simulated driving task [34]. Along the same lines, [35] found that older drivers in threatening conditions presented longer brake reaction times and longer following distances than drivers who were not threatened. The deleterious effects of stereotype threat are particularly salient in older adults who value or otherwise ascribe some importance to driving (i.e., who strongly identify with the performance domain [34]) and in individuals with diminished working memory resources [35].…”