Letter: Negativity towards the elderly has hardly changed in a decade – Financial Times

I read with interest Delphine Strauss’s piece on employment ageism (Report, June 24). The Chartered Management Institute is right to call for anti-ageism regulation. A recent study suggests that without action it will be 150 years before attitudes towards age become positive.

The psychologist who wrote the study points out a disconnect. Few people or institutions would ever say they were ageist, sexist, racist etc. In fact, they would protest the opposite. But there is ample evidence that their behaviour does not match what they say. Instead, we hold strong implicit attitudes that drive our behaviour. The Implicit Association Test is available to test many different discriminatory biases. These include ageism.

Over the past 10 years, the study has collected over 4.3mn IAT test results, predominantly in the US, to look for long run trends. In the past decade, “anti-gay”, “anti-black” and “anti-dark skin” sentiments have all become less extreme. Anti-gay bias has fallen 33% and, if the trend continues, implicit anti-gay attitude is forecast to reach “neutrality” between 2025 and 2045.

However, negativity towards the elderly has hardly shifted in the past 10 years. Explicitly stated attitudes suggest a 34% improvement. Implicit ageism has declined by only 5% in that time. Social identity theory explains all forms of discrimination. We all need to belong to a group and in order to believe it superior we “knock” other groups. Of course, we all know that we will become part of “the old”. Ageism is more deeply rooted. The Terror Management Theory suggests that old people remind us of our mortality. We need to avoid them and the easiest way to do that is to denigrate them.

The researchers predict it will take a long time for ageism to fade. At current trends it will be 150 years before ageism implicit attitudes reach “neutrality”. The decline in working age population will help, but it will not be enough. More action is urgently needed.

John Bateson
Visiting Professor of Management,
Bayes Business School,
City, University of London, UK