Examining the Utility of a Multiple Group Membership Intervention for Alleviating the Effects of Age-Based Stereotype Threat on Older adults' Memory Performance

This study examined the effectiveness of a multiple group membership intervention for reducing the negative effects of age-based stereotype threat (ABST) on older adults' objective memory performance and subjective memory concerns. Healthy older adults (N = 68) were randomly allocated to an ABST + threat-removal (ABST+TR) or ABST + active-control (ABST+AC) condition. After activating ABST, the ABST+TR condition completed a group-listing task and the ABST+AC condition completed a meal-listing task. Participants then completed the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and Everyday Memory Questionnaire - Revised. One significant difference was found in memory performance between conditions; specifically, after controlling for age, gender, and number of items listed, those in the ABST+TR condition performed significantly better on the RAVLT memory interference trial. Further, listing a greater number of group memberships was associated with better memory performance in the ABST+TR condition. No significant difference was found in subjective memory concerns between the ABST+TR condition and the ABST+AC condition. Overall, the current findings indicated that raising the salience of multiple group memberships offered limited protection for older adults' cognitive test performance in the context of ABST.

How to Age More Positively? Analyzing Determinants that Shape Attitudes Towards Aging

A considerable amount of research has illustrated that negative attitudes toward one’s own aging can directly hinder mental and physical well-being or lead to maladjustment in later stages of life (Swift et al. in Social Issues Policy Rev 11(1):195–231, https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12031, 2017). Research so far has focused on the analysis of individual factors related to attitudes toward aging, often related to personality traits. Our study proposes and tests a model of positive contact with aging (PCA). It analyses both individual and social antecedents of attitudes towards one’s own aging, hypothesizing that individual health self-efficacy directly affects attitudes towards one’s own aging and that the quality and quantity of contact with older adults indirectly impacts on attitudes towards one’s own aging through attitudes towards older adults. The model was tested in a wide sample of the Italian population (N = 753) with a varied age range. The PCA model tested showed excellent fit to the data, explaining a moderate amount of variance in attitudes toward one’s own aging (12%). This model promises to offer implications for active policies that can improve attitudes towards one’s own aging, promoting educational strategies to increase intergenerational exchanges and foster health-related self-efficacy.

Toward a New Approach to Investigate the Role of Working Memory in Stereotype Threat Effects

Stereotype threat arises when the activation of negative stereotypes about a group impairs performance of stigmatized individuals on stereotype relevant tasks. There is ample evidence that stereotype threat leads to performance detriments by consuming executive resources. Several studies indeed showed that working memory (WM) mediates stereotype threat effects among young adults. More recently, researchers have sought to understand whether the same mechanisms underlie age-based stereotype threat, but findings are mixed regarding the role of WM and some authors rather favor a motivational explanation based on regulatory fit. The present review critically appraises the empirical support for distinct forms of stereotype threat effects mediated by distinct mechanisms. We propose a novel approach based on one of the most recent WM models, the time-based resource sharing model, to evaluate the impact of stereotype threat on attentional resources in WM among both young and older adults.

A cross sectional survey on UK older adult’s attitudes to ageing, dementia and positive psychology attributes

Background

With an increasingly ageing population worldwide, the predominant attitude towards ageing is still negative. Negative stereotypes have detrimental effects on individuals’ physical and mental health. Evidence is required about factors that may predict and change these views. This study aimed to investigate if an older person’s attitude towards dementia, their belief in a just world and sense of coherence is associated with their attitudes to ageing.

Methods

A 25-min online survey was completed by 2,675 participants aged 50 or over who were current residents of the United Kingdom (UK). Questions included demographics, overall health, dementia carer, dementia relative status and retirement status. Standardised scales used were the Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ), Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS), Just World Scale (JWS) and Sense of Coherence Scale-13 (SOC). Data was analysed with descriptive, two-tailed bivariate Pearson’s correlations, simple, and hierarchical regression analyses.

Results

Attitudes to dementia, just world beliefs, and sense of coherence were all significantly positively correlated with AAQ-Total, with SOC sub-scale “Meaningfulness” showing the strongest correlation. In a hierarchical regression model, higher scores on SOC-Meaningfulness, DAS-Total and belief in a just world for oneself all predicted more positive attitudes to ageing.

Conclusions

The more positive an individual’s attitude to dementia and the stronger they hold the belief that the world is just and coherent, the more likely they are to display positive attitudes to ageing. This initial evidence helps create a greater understanding of the factors that drive attitudes and stigma and may have implications for public health messaging.

Age-based stereotype threat: a scoping review of stereotype priming techniques and their effects on the aging process

Objectives: In the current study, we reviewed and classified the different experimental methods reported in the literature to induce age-base stereotype threat in older adults, providing a comprehensive view of the methodologies present in the literature to date.Method: The current study has been developed as a literature scoping review. The PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, and CINAHL database were searched. With this approach, we assessed developments in experimental age-based stereotype manipulations in the last decades.Results: 26 articles were considered for this scoping review. Through a thematic analysis, we classified the papers into three broad categories based on the priming technique addressed: manipulation by instructions, manipulation by tests and, manipulation by mental imagery.Conclusion: Our results seem to suggest how manipulations by instructions appeared to be more largely used and capable of producing more clear performance variations on cognitive, memory, and physical tasks. Age-related stereotypes showed potentially stronger effects when they are negative, implicit, and temporally closer to the test of performance.

The Impact of Naturalistic Age Stereotype Activation

Almost self-fulfilling, commonly held negative stereotypes about old age and memory can impair older adults' episodic memory performance, due to age-based stereotype threat or self-stereotyping effects. Research studies demonstrating detrimental impacts of age stereotypes on memory performance are generally conducted in research laboratories or medical settings, which often underestimate memory abilities of older adults. To better understand the "real world" impact of negative age and memory stereotypes on episodic memory, the present research tested story recall performance of late middle-aged and older adults (N = 51) following a naturalistic age stereotype manipulation, wherein every day, newspaper-style materials (comics and puzzles) were either embedded with negative age and memory stereotype stimuli (stereotype group) or neutral stimuli (control group). Furthermore, all participants were tested in favorable, familiar environments. Potential moderators of the stereotype effects, e.g., metamemory beliefs, were assessed at baseline. Current memory evaluation and subjective age, as well as perceived stereotype threat and task-related anxiety, were assessed following the stereotype manipulation as potential mechanisms of the expected stereotype effects. Results suggested a contrast effect, as the stereotype group demonstrated superior story recall performance compared to the control group. Marginally significant moderation effects by age and perceived stereotype threat indicated that stereotype rejection was present for late middle-aged adults but not older adults, indicative of stereotype lift, and for individuals who reported low and average, but not high, levels of perceived stereotype threat. Additionally, a trend suggested more positive memory evaluation for those in the stereotype group who reported awareness of the stereotype stimuli than those who did not notice the stimuli. These results are consistent with other research demonstrating benefits to memory performance in adulthood based on motivational and contextual factors, such as using relevant memory materials and testing in favorable conditions. Moreover, the results of this study contribute to our understanding of individuals' responses to different types of stereotype stimuli, and the differential impact of stereotype manipulations that are subtle versus blatant. Individuals were motivated to counteract negative stereotype effects when conditions were supportive, stereotype presentations were naturalistic, and personal beliefs were positive.

Understanding Perceived Age-Based Judgement as a Precursor to Age-Based Stereotype Threat in Everyday Settings

Test conditions eliciting negative stereotypes of aging among older adults can prompt age-based stereotype threat (ABST), which results in worse performance on cognitive and memory tests. Much of this research explores ABST as a phenomenon that impacts the performance of older adults. Little is known about the experience of ABST beyond performance settings and how it manifests in everyday contexts across different age groups. Gaps also remain in understanding the wider impacts of ABST, such as effects on task motivation and engagement. The current research addresses this by exploring the contexts in which age-based judgement, a theorized precursor to ABST, occurs across a wide age range of participants. The two studies in this paper present mixed-methods survey data for a total of 282 respondents aged 18–84 years. Study 1 presents a thematic analysis of open-ended responses to identify the stereotypes and settings that underpin perceived age-based judgement. The settings and stereotypes identified are discussed in relation to which contexts lend themselves to adverse ABST effects. Study 2 then asked respondents to rate the extent to which they experience threat-based concern within 12 contexts identified from Study 1. Results indicate differences in threat-based concerns between young, middle-aged and older adults for physical activity, driving, using public transport, using technology, in leadership and relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The studies provide a foundation for future research to investigate (1) the motivational and behavioural consequences of threat-based concerns for younger adults’ driving and leadership, and in the context of the pandemic; (2) cues to ‘old’ age stereotypes and threat-based concerns among late middle-aged adults within the workplace; (3) the role of broad stereotypes of ‘incompetence’ and being ‘past-it’ on middle-aged and older adults’ engagement with technology and physical activity and (4) potential ABST effects resulting from stereotypes of older people as a burden and a problem in the context of a national crisis. Overall, this research extends our understanding of ABST by identifying further contexts and age groups that could be impacted by a wider range of ABST effects.

Does the Effect of Stereotypes in Older People Depend Upon Task Intensity?

This study examined the effect of negative and positive stereotypes on the strength produced by older adults at different perceived effort intensities, reflecting different levels of task difficulty. Fifty older women were randomly assigned to a positive stereotype, a negative stereotype, or a control condition. Before (T1) and after (T2) the stereotype manipulation, they were asked to perform a voluntary isometric contraction at a level of muscular effort that corresponded to four perceived effort intensities ("easy," "moderate," hard" and "very hard"). Results showed that participants attained greater strength during the easy and hard tasks after exposure to both positive and negative stereotypes. At the moderate and very hard intensities, stereotype induction did not significantly change the strength from the baseline performance. While these results are not fully in line with the stereotype threat theory, they provide evidence that task difficulty could modulate the effect of aging stereotypes during physical tasks.

Understanding Older Adults' Memory Distortion in the Light of Stereotype Threat

Numerous studies have documented the detrimental impact of age-based stereotype threat (ABST) on older adults' cognitive performance and especially on veridical memory. However, far fewer studies have investigated the impact of ABST on older adults' memory distortion. Here, we review the subset of research examining memory distortion and provide evidence for the role of stereotype threat as a powerful socio-emotional factor that impacts age-related susceptibility to memory distortion. In this review we define memory distortion as errors in memory that are associated with gist-based errors or source misattributions. Whereas, some of the reviewed experiments support the conclusion that ABST should be considered in the context of age-related differences in memory distortion, others reported little or no impact of stereotype threat. These discrepancies suggest that the role of ABST, and socio-emotional processes generally, in age-related changes in memory distortion are less clear. In this review, we argue that ABST does play an important role in age-related changes in memory distortion. We present evidence suggesting that discrepancies in the reviewed literature may be reconciled when evaluated in the context of the leading theories about stereotype threat: the Executive Resource Depletion hypothesis and the Regulatory Focus theory. We also discuss how differences in methodology and participant characteristics can account for a priori contradictory results in the literature. Finally, we propose some recommendations for researchers and practitioners when assessing memory in older adults.

Development and Initial Validation of the Adolescents' Ageism Toward Older Adults Scale

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Ageism toward older adults, prevalent in contemporary societies, seems to be internalized during childhood and consolidated during adolescence. Although several instruments have been developed to measure adolescents' ageism, they present a number of limitations. The study aimed at developing a new instrument, the Adolescents' Ageism Toward Older Adults Scale, and testing its psychometric properties.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

A 3-phase process was followed: the instrument's items were developed empirically from focus groups of adolescents; its content validity was evaluated; and finally, its psychometric properties were tested through a multicenter cross-sectional study involving 575 adolescents.

RESULTS

Exploratory factor analysis of the new scale retained 33 items grouped into six factors: Moodiness, Traditionalism, Physical deterioration, Anti-technologism, Sageness and Sociability. Confirmatory factor analysis evidenced a second-order factor structure. Omega coefficients measuring internal consistency were above the cut-off of 0.60 for the six factors except for Anti-technologism. Intraclass correlation coefficients for the entire scale and for the six factors were greater than 0.70, again excepting Anti-technologism.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The Adolescents' Ageism Toward Older Adults Scale is a promising measure of adolescents' negative and positive attitudes toward older adults. Its validation highlighted some criticalities that can be resolved by a few modifications. Further testing of the scale should be conducted after these modifications.

Older Adults' Emotion Recognition Ability Is Unaffected by Stereotype Threat

Eliciting negative stereotypes about ageing commonly results in worse performance on many physical, memory, and cognitive tasks in adults aged over 65. The current studies explored the potential effect of this “stereotype threat” phenomenon on older adults’ emotion recognition, a cognitive ability that has been demonstrated to decline with age. In Study 1, stereotypes about emotion recognition ability across the lifespan were established. In Study 2, these stereotypes were utilised in a stereotype threat manipulation that framed an emotion recognition task as assessing either cognitive ability (stereotypically believed to worsen with age), social ability (believed to be stable across lifespan), or general abilities (control). Participants then completed an emotion recognition task in which they labelled dynamic expressions of negative and positive emotions. Self-reported threat concerns were also measured. Framing an emotion recognition task as assessing cognitive ability significantly heightened older adults’ (but not younger adults’) reports of stereotype threat concerns. Despite this, older adults’ emotion recognition performance was unaffected. Unlike other cognitive abilities, recognising facially expressed emotions may be unaffected by stereotype threat, possibly because emotion recognition is automatic, making it less susceptible to the cognitive load that stereotype threat produces.

Overcoming Age-Based Stereotypes to Optimise Cognitive Performance in Older Adults: A Systematic Review of Methodology and Existing Evidence

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Age-based stereotype threat (ABST) poses serious risks for the cognitive screening of older adults. This review aimed to identify and critically appraise the methodology and existing evidence of studies investigating the use of threat-removal (TR) strategies to overcome the effects of ABST on the cognitive performance of older adults. The types of strategies, their effectiveness in optimising cognitive performance, and factors influencing their effectiveness were examined.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. PsycINFO, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched from 1st January 1995 to 6th November 2019. Two authors independently assessed article eligibility and appraised methodological quality of eligible articles using an adaptation of the STROBE guidelines. Narrative synthesis was used to summarise results.

RESULTS

Thirty articles, reporting on 36 studies, were eligible and included. Overall, evidence for the effectiveness of TR was mixed and varied according to the explicitness of strategies and comparison conditions used. Studies examining blatant TR strategies, and those using a combination of blatant and subtle TR strategies, provided limited support for their effectiveness in overcoming ABST. However, studies evaluating subtle TR strategies provided preliminary support for their effectiveness in overcoming ABST.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Existing studies provide limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of TR strategies in overcoming ABST due to methodological limitations. Recommendations are made for the design of future studies to differentiate the benefits of TR strategies from the detrimental effects of ABST, thus potentially informing their use in clinical practice.

The Intersecting Influence of Age and Performance Stereotypes on Physical and Psychological Aspects of Stair Navigation in Older Adults

Negative age-stereotypes can have widespread effects on older adult functionality; however, no research has explored psychophysical aspects of stair navigation after exposure to stereotype priming. The present study examined self-efficacy and biomechanics related to stair navigation in older adults ( N = 90). Between-groups analyses revealed positively primed older adults ascended and descended the stairs significantly faster with greater velocity in the medio-lateral plane than older adults who received a negative prime or controls ( p < .017). Moreover, negatively primed older adults rated their stair self-efficacy significantly lower compared with the control and positively primed groups ( p < .017). These results suggest positively primed older adults can navigate stairs with more confidence, quickness, and efficiency. With implications for interventions aimed at maintaining older adult functionality, the present study highlights the potential benefits of positive age-stereotypes, especially related to challenging physical tasks.

Young Group Identification and Motives as Predictors of Ageism, Aging Anxiety, and Life Satisfaction

The present study examined young group identification and young group motives (i.e., self-esteem, distinctiveness, belonging, meaning, efficacy, and continuity) as predictors of ambivalent ageism, stereotyping of older people, aging anxiety, and life satisfaction among Turkish university students. Participants (N = 226) completed scales measuring age group identification, social identity motives, ambivalent ageism, stereotyping of older people, aging anxiety, and life satisfaction. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that belonging to a young group was a significant predictor for ambivalent ageism. Young group identification and meaning were significant predictors for negative stereotyping of older people. Young group self-esteem was a significant predictor for aging anxiety. Young group identification, self-esteem, and meaning were significant predictors for life satisfaction. None of the independent variables was a significant predictor for positive stereotyping of older people.

The relative importance of personal beliefs, meta-stereotypes and societal stereotypes of age for the wellbeing of older people

Negative images of old age can harm older individuals’ cognitive and physical functioning and health. Yet, older people may be confronted with age stereotypes that are inconsistent with their own personal beliefs. We examine the implications for older people's wellbeing of three distinct elements of age stereotypes: their personal beliefs about their age group, their perception about how others generally perceive older people (i.e. their meta-stereotypes) and the societal age stereotypes that are empirically widely shared in society. Using measures from the Stereotype Content Model and survey data of older people from the United Kingdom (UK) (Study 1, N = 171), we found only partial overlap between older people's personal beliefs and their meta-stereotypes. Personal beliefs were unrelated to wellbeing, but positive meta-stereotypes of older people's competence were linked to higher wellbeing. These findings were largely replicated with a sample of baby-boomers from Switzerland (Study 2, N = 400) controlling for socio-demographics. Study 3 used representative survey data (N = 10,803) across 29 European countries, to test and confirm that the link between positive competence meta-stereotypes and wellbeing can be generalised to different cultures, and that positive warmth meta-stereotypes were an additional predictor. At the country level, societal age stereotypes about competence were positively related to the wellbeing of older people, but only in countries that provide greater opportunities for competence attainment.

A concepção de envelhecimento com base na teoria de campo de Kurt Lewin e a dinâmica de grupos

Resumo O estudo objetivou refletir sobre a aplicabilidade da teoria de campo de Kurt Lewin na concepção de envelhecimento. Trata-se de uma abordagem reflexiva sobre o uso da teoria de campo de Kurt Lewin para definir e legitimar a experiência de envelhecer, e como estratégia para a qualificação de profissionais de saúde como mediadores em dinâmicas de grupos de idosos. Pôde-se observar que o idoso comporta-se de acordo com suas percepções e não de acordo com a realidade, reage conforme aquilo que é confortável ou não com suas cognições. Estimular os idosos a realizarem interpretações subjetivas positivas acerca de outras pessoas, coisas e o processo de envelhecimento lhe induzirão a ideia de satisfação. E as dinâmicas de grupos podem proporcionar o desenvolvimento de uma ação coletiva de discussão e reflexão sobre o envelhecimento. Nesse sentido, a aplicabilidade dessa teoria na experiência de envelhecer pode valorizar a percepção dos próprios idosos como protagonistas de intervenções e dotados de julgamentos sobre bem-estar e qualidade de vida.

Endorsing and Reinforcing Gender and Age Stereotypes: The Negative Effect on Self-Rated Leadership Potential for Women and Older Workers

Previous research has examined the impact of stereotypes on outcomes such as career progression and hiring decisions. We present a novel approach to examine the role of stereotypes in predicting self-rated leadership potential across gender and age groups. This research sheds light on the impact of leadership-incongruent and detrimental stereotypes about one's gender and age, for women and older workers, on self-ratings of leadership potential. Across three studies (total N = 640), correlational and experimental evidence shows differential effects of stereotypes about women (vs. men) and older (vs. younger) people on self-ratings of their own leadership potential. Results suggest that both gender and age stereotypes affect older workers more than their younger counterparts (Study 1). Specifically, effects on self-rated leadership potential at the intersectional level show that endorsement of stereotypes has opposite effects on older women to younger men (Study 1). Furthermore, stereotyped workplace cultures impacted women's and older worker's perceptions of job fit (Studies 2 and 3), also extending to job appeal for older workers (Study 3). Results are discussed in terms of career implications for both women and older workers, with a particular focus on older women, whose intersecting identities are leadership stereotype-incongruent.

Spatial Agency: Creating New Opportunities for Sharing and Collaboration in Older People’s Cohousing

Older people’s cohousing enables individuals to share spaces, resources, activities, and knowledge to expand their capability to act in society. Despite the diverse social, economic, and ethical aims that inform the creation of every cohousing community, there is often a disconnect between the social discourse developed by cohousing groups and the architectural spaces they create. This is a consequence of the building development process in cohousing, in which groups of older people are tasked with making decisions with considerable spatial implications prior to any collaboration with an architect. The concept of “spatial agency” offers an alternative model for the creation of cohousing, in which the expansion of architectural practice beyond aesthetic and technical building design enables social and spatial considerations to be explored contemporaneously. This study uses a two-year design-research collaboration with a cohousing group in Manchester, UK, to test the opportunities and constraints posed by a “spatial agency” approach to cohousing. The collaboration demonstrated how spatial agency enables both the architect and cohouser to act more creatively through a mutual sharing of knowledge, and, in doing so, tests new opportunities of sharing that are currently outside the cohousing orthodoxy.

Interactions between stereotype threat, subjective aging, and memory in older adults

This study examined whether the effects of stereotype threat on memory and subjective age were moderated by positive age stereotypes and self-perceptions of aging among older adults. Perceived threat as a mechanism underlying these effects was also explored. Results showed that stereotype threat (high vs. low threat) did not affect the dependent variables. Moreover, self-perceptions of aging did not moderate the effect of stereotype threat on the dependent variables. However, for people with more positive age stereotypes, older people under highthreat perceived more threat than people under low threat. This could be explained by an effect of age stereotypes in the high-threat group: the more positive age stereotypes held by participants, the more they perceived threat, which in turn decreased their memory performance and made them feel mentally older. We hypothesized that age group identity is stronger in people with more positive age stereotypes, which increase perceived threat.

How do views on aging affect health outcomes in adulthood and late life? Explanations for an established connection

Personal views on aging, such as age stereotypes and subjective aging, can affect various health outcomes in later life. For the past 20 years or so, a large body of experimental and longitudinal work has provided ample evidence for this connection. Thus, it seems timely to better understand the pathways of this linkage. The majority of existing studies has either focused on age stereotypes or subjective aging. This theoretical paper provides a systematic comparison of major theoretical approaches that offer explanations through which different views on aging may affect health. After a short review of findings on the short- and long-term effects of different views on aging, we describe theoretical approaches that provide explanations of underlying mechanisms for the effect of both uni- and multidimensional views on aging on health outcomes. We compare the specific characteristics of these approaches, provide a heuristic framework and outline recommendations for future research routes. A better understanding of the impact of different views on aging on health outcomes is not only relevant for basic research in life-span developmental psychology, geropsychology and health psychology, it has also implications for intervention research and public health practices.

An Examination of Age-Based Stereotype Threat About Cognitive Decline

"Stereotype threat" is often thought of as a singular construct, with moderators and mechanisms that are stable across groups and domains. However, this is not always true. To illustrate this, the current review focuses on the stereotype threat that older adults face about their cognitive abilities. Drawing upon the multithreat framework, I first provide evidence that this is a self-concept threat and not a group-reputation threat. Because this differs from the forms of stereotype threat experienced by other groups (e.g., the threat that minority students face about their intellectual abilities), the moderators of stereotype threat observed in other groups (i.e., group identification) do not always generalize to age-based stereotype threat about cognitive decline. Looking beyond the forms of stereotype threat elicited, this review also provides evidence that the mechanisms underlying stereotype-threat effects may vary across the adult life span. Because of age-related improvements in emotion-regulation abilities, stereotype threat does not seem to reduce older adults' executive-control resources. Overall, this review highlights the need to approach the concept of stereotype threat with more granularity, allowing researchers to design more effective stereotype-threat interventions. It will also shed light on why certain stereotype threat effects "fail to replicate" across domains or groups.

Old and Unemployable? How Age-Based Stereotypes Affect Willingness to Hire Job Candidates

Across the world, people are required, or want, to work until an increasingly old age. But how might prospective employers view job applicants who have skills and qualities that they associate with older adults? This article draws on social role theory, age stereotypes and research on hiring biases, and reports three studies using age-diverse North American participants. These studies reveal that: (1) positive older age stereotype characteristics are viewed less favorably as criteria for job hire, (2) even when the job role is low-status, a younger stereotype profile tends to be preferred, and (3) an older stereotype profile is only considered hirable when the role is explicitly cast as subordinate to that of a candidate with a younger age profile. Implications for age-positive selection procedures and ways to reduce the impact of implicit age biases are discussed.

Stereotypes of Aging: Their Effects on the Health of Older Adults

The purpose of this review is to present findings on the effects of stereotypes of aging on health outcomes related to older adults, such as physical and mental functioning (specifically) and overall well-being and perceived quality of life (more broadly). This review shows that both positive and negative stereotypes of aging can have enabling and constraining effects on the actions, performance, decisions, attitudes, and, consequently, holistic health of an older adult. This review further highlights a variety of limitations in stereotype research in aging contexts, including a lack of qualitative studies focusing on older adult perspectives and the fluctuating definition of what constitutes “good health” during older age.

A review and meta-analysis of age-based stereotype threat: negative stereotypes, not facts, do the damage

Stereotype threat effects arise when an individual feels at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about their group and consequently underperforms on stereotype relevant tasks (Steele, 2010). Among older people, underperformance across cognitive and physical tasks is hypothesized to result from age-based stereotype threat (ABST) because of negative age-stereotypes regarding older adults’ competence. The present review and meta-analyses examine 22 published and 10 unpublished articles, including 82 effect sizes (N = 3882) investigating ABST on older people’s (M_age = 69.5) performance. The analysis revealed a significant small-to-medium effect of ABST (d = .28) and important moderators of the effect size. Specifically, older adults are more vulnerable to ABST when (a) stereotype-based rather than fact-based manipulations are used (d = .52); (b) when performance is tested using cognitive measures (d = .36); and (c) occurs reliably when the dependent variable is measured proximally to the manipulation. The review raises important theoretical and methodological issues, and areas for future research.

Age differences in the underlying mechanisms of stereotype threat effects

OBJECTIVES

The goals of the present study were to (a) examine whether age differences exist in the mechanisms underlying stereotype threat effects on cognitive performance and (b) examine whether emotion regulation abilities may buffer against threat effects on performance.

METHOD

Older and younger adults were exposed to positive or negative age-relevant stereotypes, allowing us to examine the impact of threat on regulatory focus and working memory. Self-reported emotion regulation measures were completed prior to the session.

RESULTS

Older adults' performance under threat suggested a prevention-focused approach to the task, indexed by increased accuracy and reduced speed. The same pattern was observed in younger adults, but the effects were not as strong. Age differences emerged when examining the availability of working memory resources under threat, with young adults showing decrements, whereas older adults did not. Emotion regulation abilities moderated threat effects in young adults but not in older adults.

CONCLUSIONS

The results provide support for the notion that stereotype threat may lead to underperformance through somewhat different pathways in older and younger adults. Future research should further examine whether the underlying reason for this age difference is rooted in age-related improvements in emotion regulation.

Age differences in wisdom-related knowledge: does the age relevance of the task matter?

OBJECTIVES

Contrary to lay theories, past work does not suggest robust age differences in wisdom-related knowledge across the adult life span. This study investigated a potential moderator of age differences in wisdom-related knowledge: The age relevance of a given wisdom task.

METHOD

To test this moderator, 192 participants covering the adult life span were asked to think aloud about a traditional vignette-based wisdom task with no particular age relevance and about newly developed tasks of problems that arguably are particularly salient in young adulthood, namely, marital conflicts. These tasks were presented as vignette and as naturalistic video clips.

RESULTS

Replicating earlier work, there were no linear age differences in wisdom-related knowledge as elicited by the traditional age-neutral wisdom task. However, both vignette-based and video-based tasks about marital conflict elicited greater wisdom-related knowledge in younger than in older adults. Young adults' greater actual experience and openness to marital conflict contributed to these age differences.

DISCUSSION

This study provides evidence for the idea that age differences in wise reasoning about fundamental life issues depend on the relevance of age-normative problems in individuals' own lives. This suggests that any phase of life offers opportunities for the attainment of wisdom-related strengths as long as an individual is willing and able to actively engage in life's ongoing challenges.