Doddering But Dear: Process, Content, and Function in Stereotyping of Older Persons

Abstract

about other people (Fiske 1998; Kite, Deaux, and Miele 1991). Conscious or not, noticing age drives our interactions with others. Age seems to answer: How should I address them? What are their political views? What do they know about popular culture? Will they be competent? Socially aware? How slowly should I talk? How loudly? From an individual’s perceived age, we infer social and cognitive competencies, political and religious beliefs, and physical abilities. These inferences guide how we behave and what information we seek, heed, and remember. Age is far from the only social marker that shapes our attitudes toward other people. We form opinions based on sex, race, and religion, among other social categories. But unlike these other categories, old age is one that most of us eventually join. For the most part, people do not move from one gender, racial, ethnic, or religious category to another. Moreover, stereotyping people based on their age, unlike these other groupings, goes largely unchallenged and even unnoticed in the United States. We disparage elderly people without fear of censure. Indeed, noticing a person’s age early in a social encounter is not surprising or inherently offensive. It is what we do with that information that can be destructive. As Butler (1980) notes in an edition of the Journal of Social Issues devoted to the topic, ageism, like racism and sexism, becomes institutionalized, affecting hiring decisions, medical care, and social policy. Many people a…