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‘Help me! I’m old!’ How negative aging stereotypes create dependency among older adults
- Authors:
- COUDIN Geneviève, ALEXOPOULOS Theodore
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 14(5), July 2010, pp.516-523.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This study, examining the effects of negative ageing stereotypes on self-reported loneliness, risk-taking, subjective health, and help-seeking behaviour in a French sample of older people, aimed to show the detrimental effects of negative ageing stereotypes on older people’s self-evaluations and behaviours, therefore contributing to the explanations of the iatrogenic effect of social environments that increase dependency. The first experiment, using 57 older people, explored the effects of positive, neutral, or negative stereotype activation on the feeling of loneliness and risk taking decision. The second experiment, on 60 older people, examined the impact of stereotype activation on subjective health, self-reported extraversion as well as on a genuine help-seeking behaviour, by allowing participants to ask for the experimenter's help while completing a task. Findings showed that, as predicted, negative stereotype activation resulted in lower levels of risk taking, subjective health and extraversion, and in higher feelings of loneliness and a more frequent help-seeking behaviour. These findings suggest that the mere activation of negative stereotypes can have broad and deleterious effects on older peoples’ self-evaluation and functioning, which in turn may contribute to the often observed dependency among older people.