In this episode, we ask how negative age stereotypes develop and are perpetuated. With stereotyping, an “in-group” (young adults) tends to define and perpetuate a negative image of an “out-group” (older adults). Becca Levy’s Stereotype Embodiment Theory suggests that we acquire age stereotypes about old people when we are children and reinforce them during adulthood. As younger adults become older adults, they inevitably lose their in-group status and become associated with the out-group and find themselves to the same ageist prejudices and discrimination they perpetuate when young.
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