Ng R, Lim WJ. Ageism linked to culture, not demographics: Evidence from an 8-billion-word corpus across 20 countries.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2020;
76:1791-1798. [PMID:
33099600 PMCID:
PMC8557828 DOI:
10.1093/geronb/gbaa181]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2020] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Objectives
Ageism has increased over 200 years and costs the U.S. health care system $63 billion a
year. While scholars agree on the consequences of ageism, there are disagreements on
whether it is related to the demographics of aging, or society’s cultural values. We
test both hypotheses across 20 countries.
Method
To circumvent the sampling limitations of survey studies, we used an 8-billion-word
corpus, identified 3 synonyms with the highest prevalence—aged, elderly, old people—and
compiled the top 300 words (collocates) that were used most frequently with these
synonyms for each of the 20 countries. The resulting 6,000 collocates were rated on an
ageism scale by 2 raters to create an ageism score per country. Cultural dimension
scores—Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term
Orientation—were taken from Hofstede, and demographics—size and speed of population
aging—came from the World Development Indicators.
Results
Of the 20 countries, UK topped the ageism table, while Sri Lanka had the lowest ageism
score. Multiple regression models showed that higher levels of masculinity and long-term
orientation are associated with ageism, controlling for other cultural dimensions,
demographics (size and speed of aging), and economics (GDP-per-capita).
Discussion
Our findings blunt the deterministic nature of ageism at the societal level.
Demographics is only one side of the ageism coin, and the cultural side is equally, if
not more important. This study lays the groundwork to tackle societal ageism—one of our
generation’s most pernicious threats.
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