Ageism Unmasked: Summary of Research

I recently wrote an article for the Max De Pree Center for Leadership. It’s called “Ageism Unmasked.” I won’t repeat everything I wrote in that article since you can find it here. In this Substack post, I want to provide more detail about the research I mentioned in the “Ageism Unmasked” piece.

Note: The links I’ve included will often take you to an abstract of a study, not the full study. Or if they take you to the full study, you won’t be able to read it online. Access to the full study is often limited to people who either: 1) want to pay a lot of money, or 2) are connected to an academic institution. I am able to see full studies because of my affiliation with Fuller Seminary and/or Harvard University (as an alum). In most cases, you can find helpful information from the abstracts. If you need more, you can access the full studies from many libraries.

Age Discrimination Common in Workplace, Survey Says

By Kenneth Terrell, AARP website, August 2, 2018. https://www.aarp.org/work/age-discrimination/common-at-work/

This article reports on a recent survey done by the AARP. It begins, “Nearly 2 out of 3 workers ages 45 and older have seen or experienced age discrimination on the job, according to the results of a wide-ranging AARP workplace survey released Thursday. Among the 61 percent of respondents who reported age bias, 91 percent said they believe that such discrimination is common.”

The survey also pointed to why older adults continue working beyond what might be considered retirement age: “The overall results of the Value of Experience survey show that while most older Americans continue to work for financial reasons, they also want to be in roles in which they gain personal fulfillment and respect.”

Also, the AARP survey found that 13 percent of older people who said they were retired were either working or looking for work. The whole notion of retirement is changing in our society.

Experiences of Everyday Ageism and the Health of Older US Adults

By Julie Ober Allen, et al. JAMA Network Open, June 15, 2022. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2793359

This academic study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It found: “Among 2035 adults ages 50 to 80 years (1047 [54.2%] women; 192 Black [10.9%], 178 Hispanic [11.4%], and 1546 White [71.1%]; mean [SD] age, 62.6 [8.0] years [weighted statistics]), most participants (1915 adults [93.4%]) reported regularly experiencing 1 or more forms of everyday ageism” (emphasis added). Note: “everyday ageism” includes internalized ageism, that is, ageism directed at oneself.

The scholars who did this research concluded: “This study found everyday ageism to be prevalent among US adults ages 50 to 80 years. These findings suggest that commonplace ageist messages, interactions, and beliefs may be harmful to health and that multilevel and multisector efforts may be required to reduce everyday ageism and promote positive beliefs, practices, and policies related to aging and older adults.”

Societal Age Stereotypes in the U.S. and U.K. from a Media Database of 1.1 Billion Words

By Reuben NG, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, August 21, 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34444578/

This study employed a database of 1.1 billion words used in Britain and the U.S. It concluded: “Negative descriptions of older adults outnumber positive ones by six times. Negative descriptions tend to be physical, while positive ones tend to be behavioral. Magazines contain the highest levels of ageism, followed by the spoken genre, newspapers, and fiction. Findings underscore the need to increase public awareness of ageism and lay the groundwork to design targeted societal campaigns to tackle ageism-one of our generation's most pernicious threats” (emphasis added).

Global Report on Ageism

By the World Health Organization, March 18, 2021. Access this report in various formats here: https://www.who.int/teams/social-determinants-of-health/demographic-change-and-healthy-ageing/combatting-ageism/global-report-on-ageism.

This lengthy report includes a helpful definition of ageism: “Ageism refers to the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) directed towards people on the basis of their age. It can be institutional, interpersonal or self-directed.”

It also reports that:

Globally, one in two people are ageist against older people.

The report summarizes the negative costs of ageism: “Ageism has serious and far-reaching consequences for people’s health, well-being and human rights. For older people, ageism is associated with a shorter lifespan, poorer physical and mental health, slower recovery from disability and cognitive decline. Ageism reduces older people’s quality of life, increases their social isolation and loneliness (both of which are associated with serious health problems), restricts their ability to express their sexuality and may increase the risk of violence and abuse against older people. Ageism can also reduce younger people’s commitment to the organization they work for.”

“For individuals, ageism contributes to poverty and financial insecurity in older age, and one recent estimate shows that ageism costs society billions of dollars.”

One in 10 Older Americans Has Dementia

By Columbia University Department of Neurology, October 26, 2022. https://www.neurology.columbia.edu/news/one-10-older-americans-has-dementia

In the first nationally representative study of cognitive impairment prevalence in more than 20 years, Columbia University researchers have found almost 10% of U.S. adults ages 65 and older have dementia, while another 22% have mild cognitive impairment.

Why you should thank your aging brain

By Harvard Health Publishing, March 17, 2015. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/why-you-should-thank-your-aging-brain.

According to this article: “A host of studies in the past decade have shown that the more mature brain actually has advantages over its younger counterpart. These findings came as a surprise to many people, who were accustomed to seeing ‘senior moments’—groping for the right word or taking longer to articulate your thoughts—as a sign that the brain was on the skids. Yet even in professions where youth is valued, testing has shown that maturity has advantages. For example, in a study of air-traffic controllers and airline pilots, those between ages 50 and 69 took longer than those under 50 to master new equipment, but once they had, they made fewer mistakes using it.”

Older brains are often better at inductive reasoning, verbal abilities, spatial reasoning, basic math, accentuating the positive, and attaining contentment. (I wonder if my brain is better at basic math because I never touched a calculator until I was 13.)

Key Mental Abilities Can Actually Improve During Aging

By Georgetown University Medical Center, August 19, 2021. https://gumc.georgetown.edu/news-release/key-mental-abilities-can-actually-improve-during-aging/

Here are excerpts from the article that reports on recent research:

“The findings, published August 19, 2021, in Nature Human Behavior, show that two key brain functions, which allow us to attend to new information and to focus on what’s important in a given situation, can in fact improve in older individuals. These functions underlie critical aspects of cognition such as memory, decision making, and self-control, and even navigation, math, language and reading.”

“The components they studied are the brain networks involved in alerting, orienting and executive inhibition. Each has different characteristics and relies on different brain areas and different neurochemicals and genes.”

“The study found that only alerting abilities declined with age. In contrast, both orienting and executive inhibition actually improved.”

With Age Comes Wisdom: Decision Making in Younger and Older Adults

By Darrell A. Worthy, et al. Psychological Science, September 29, 2011. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797611420301

This study found that “Younger adults performed better when rewards were independent of choice, whereas older adults performed better when rewards were dependent on choice. These findings suggest a fundamental difference in the way in which younger adults and older adults approach decision-making situations.”

It concluded thus:

Although aging may lead to some cognitive declines, it may also lead to gains in the insight and wisdom needed to make the best decisions.

Image: https://unsplash.com/photos/person-in-black-knit-cap-and-gray-sweater-q7ZlbWbDnYo