Ageism

Origins of Ageism

Few people considered discrimination and prejudice against the elderly until Robert Butler coined the word ageism in 1968. Butler was a chair for the District of Columbia Advisory Committee on Aging and went on to become the first Director of the National Institute on Aging. He was involved in public housing acquisition debates in the 1960s. In an interview, he responded to a question about housing issues and racism. He noted that people could not get fair housing because of age, not just race. Along those lines, ageism is distinct from racism and sexism. A racist will never be another skin color. A sexist man will never be a female. However, if they do not die, people will age.

Ageism is a direct product of social change. The young did not have negative attitudes toward the old years ago, because they needed the aged for practical purposes. The old were the most powerful people in many civilizations. A long life was a sign of favor from supernatural forces, but most important, people valued the old because they handed down valuable knowledge to younger generations. This changed with the creation of the printing press. A younger person in need of information could turn to a book for advice, but the old still knew things not easily found in texts. However, technology today is changing that and further decaying the tradition of intergenerational contact. Younger generations can gather advice, recipes, and even biographical information on dead family members on the Internet with no need to contact an aged loved one. The impact of the Industrial Revolution continues to have negative effects on the old. Factory-based jobs placed a [Page 13]higher demand on physical fitness for employment. As technology rapidly evolves, the old have less of a knowledge base and little experience to take part in new social trends. In a culture where assets define you, the old and poor carry less value in comparison with others. The elevated level of geographic mobility in society provides opportunities for young family members to relocate for their betterment. One unintended consequence of this is that younger people leave behind older family members in need of emotional and social support. Moreover, when those who relocate do not see older loved ones as much, ageist attitudes will be more likely to evolve.

It is possible that younger generations today have negative attitudes toward the aged because of an innate desire for psychological self-preservation. A perspective known as terror management theory argues that the aged remind the young that they are mortal. Younger people see older people, and it triggers anxiety and fear. Humans like to control their lives. Aging is inevitable. Humans cannot control it. Older people remind younger people of their mortality, so the young direct amplified amounts of negativity toward the old to calm their reservations about aging. It is a classic sociological example of one group stigmatizing another to increase its own sense of well-being. However, it also hints that intrinsic processes beyond our control might lead to ageism. From a biosocial perspective, scholars argue that when humans hear the word old, they automatically create cognitive connections to other negative trait words. In addition, studies used to test implicit ageism find that people of all ages have an unconscious motivation to view older people in a negative way regardless of experience. However, related studies do imply that people attuned to the influence of stereotypes who have a personality characterized by low prejudice have a better chance of fighting off innate feelings of prejudice toward the old.

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