Ageism: prevalence, impacts, and social implications

Ageism is the stereotype of older persons and it is something that is pervasive in our culture. In a society where youth and beauty is so admired and coveted, older persons are left to feel worthless and often feel invisible to younger people. When people say, "You look so young," they believe that they are giving a person a compliment because to look young is to be worthwhile. Being and looking young is so much more about just the way one looks. To be young is to embody possibilities, opportunities, attractiveness, and worthiness, among other things. However, for the person hearing, "You look so young," the "compliment" can be taken in one of a couple of ways. While the person may feel complimented, when thinking more profoundly about it, it also tends to say that it's a good thing he or she does look young, or else they'd look old and that would be something not good. We are prejudiced against older people in our culture because it is a collective social perception that young is better than old and this is something that is repeated to us via the media.

An interesting aspect of racism, according to Nelson (2004, x) is that it is unlike other types of stereotyping -- say, racism or sexism -- because the "in-group (the young) will eventually (if they are fortunate) become a member of the out-group (older persons)." Because of this fact, ageism seems quite strange because young people will eventually become a part of a group in which they feel prejudice for . If people were to stop and think about Nelson's statement, they would either adopt another attitude or pray to die young (which seems altogether foolish).

Perhaps ageism is due to the fact that seeing older persons who have lost their beauty, their ability to get around, and sometimes, their ability to function mentally, inspires fear and anxiety in younger people. They don't want to become that person who can't make it to the bathroom alone or can't remember the names of their children. This fear may lead people to develop a negative attitude about older persons because it is rooted in fear -- fear of what will become of them someday (if they live that long). Nelson (2004, x) adheres to this way of thinking. He says, "Merely thinking about (or seeing) an older person tends to arouse anxiety about the fact that one has a short time on earth, and the fear associated with such cognitions tends to provoke the perceiver to dislike the individual (or group) who elicits such fear." While Nelson's (2004, x) theory may be easy to understand, it still does not make ageism right.