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The relative importance of personal beliefs, meta-stereotypes and societal stereotypes of age for the wellbeing of older people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2020

Nicole Fasel Open the ORCID record for Nicole Fasel [Opens in a new window] ,
Christin-Melanie Vauclair ,
Maria Luísa Lima  and
Dominic Abrams
Nicole Fasel*
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Edifício ISCTE, Cis-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal
Christin-Melanie Vauclair
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Edifício ISCTE, Cis-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal School of Psychology – Keynes College, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Maria Luísa Lima
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Edifício ISCTE, Cis-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal
Dominic Abrams
Affiliation:
School of Psychology – Keynes College, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: nicolefasel01@gmail.com
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Abstract

Negative images of old age can harm older individuals’ cognitive and physical functioning and health. Yet, older people may be confronted with age stereotypes that are inconsistent with their own personal beliefs. We examine the implications for older people's wellbeing of three distinct elements of age stereotypes: their personal beliefs about their age group, their perception about how others generally perceive older people (i.e. their meta-stereotypes) and the societal age stereotypes that are empirically widely shared in society. Using measures from the Stereotype Content Model and survey data of older people from the United Kingdom (UK) (Study 1, N = 171), we found only partial overlap between older people's personal beliefs and their meta-stereotypes. Personal beliefs were unrelated to wellbeing, but positive meta-stereotypes of older people's competence were linked to higher wellbeing. These findings were largely replicated with a sample of baby-boomers from Switzerland (Study 2, N = 400) controlling for socio-demographics. Study 3 used representative survey data (N = 10,803) across 29 European countries, to test and confirm that the link between positive competence meta-stereotypes and wellbeing can be generalised to different cultures, and that positive warmth meta-stereotypes were an additional predictor. At the country level, societal age stereotypes about competence were positively related to the wellbeing of older people, but only in countries that provide greater opportunities for competence attainment.

Keywords

stereotypesmeta-stereotypeswellbeingcompetencecontext
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 41 , Issue 12 , December 2021 , pp. 2768 - 2791
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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