Negative and Positive Stereotypes about Young People

Stereotypes

A stereotype is a belief based on and informed by social assumptions or biases regarding another group of people and how that group looks, thinks, and behaves. Stereotypes can be used to form judgments, as they allow people to more easily interact with others based on categorical assumptions they make about them. There are stereotypes based on assumptions about race, age, gender, and so on. For example, stereotypes about aging include both positive and negative traits, such as viewing older adults as wise or, at the opposite end, as forgetful and frail?? (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2011).

Stereotypes can vary across different age groups. Young adults are often stereotyped as energetic, technologically adept, irresponsible, and self-centered. Depending on who holds the stereotype, they may be seen as inexperienced, impulsive, and lacking wisdom and control. The stronger they are the more these stereotypes contribute to assumptions about their capabilities and the roles they should be given in society.

Older adults are commonly stereotyped in both positive and negative ways, too. On the one hand, they are seen as wise and generous. They tend to be put into categories like the "golden-ager" or "perfect grandparent" stereotype. At the same time, older adults can be viewed as physically and mentally declining, and thus there can be negative stereotypes about them like the "curmudgeon," i.e., bitter or impaired?.

Stereotypes across age groups share the commonality of attributing specific traits to individuals based on their age. However, there are differences in the perception of these stereotypes. Older adults tend to perceive a greater range of both positive and negative traits associated with aging, which indicates that opinions vary widely when compared to opinions about younger adults (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2011). This may be because the older people get the more respect they are generally given by society, whereas young people tend to be given less respect by comparison.

Implicit stereotyping refers to the unconscious activation of stereotypes, which can occur automatically and which can influence behavior without a person being aware of it. Implicit stereotyping can impact behaviors and attitudes toward members of stereotyped groups. For example, one study has shown that young adults primed with images of elderly individuals walked more slowly after the experiment, reflecting an unconscious activation of age-related stereotypes??.

Implicit stereotyping often influences behavior in ways that line up with rather than go against the stereotypes held about a group. For example, patronizing talk is a common behavior directed toward older adults, where younger people may speak more slowly or use simpler vocabulary, assuming that older adults are less capable of understanding complex language. This behavior stems from negative stereotypes about older adults' cognitive abilities and it is something that can lead to social alienation or isolation and depression (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2011)?.

Implicit stereotypes about aging can have real-world consequences on cognitive performance, too. Older adults exposed to negative stereotypes about aging, such as those related to memory decline, tend to perform worse on memory tasks than those exposed to neutral or positive messages?. This is known as stereotype threat and it happens when people feel at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about their group. Older adults may internalize the stereotype that their cognitive abilities will decline, which then actually triggers the decline.