Gender(Counter-) Stereotype About The Elderly And Its Effect On Attitude Evaluation

With the increasing aging of the population,the phenomenon of social cognition related to the elderly has been paid more and more attention by psychologists.Gender,as one of the three categories of social cognition,plays an important role in the formation of impressions.Therefore,this study focuses on the content of gender stereotypes about the elderly,people's attitude evaluation towards gender(counter-)stereotypical old individuals,which is helpful to a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the elderly group.Study1:through the closed nomination of gender trait words and the verification of the gender typicality of trait words,eight typical masculine trait words were finally obtained:steady,rational,chivalrous,humorous,impatient,reckless,conceited,hasty and eight typical feminine trait words:understanding,kind,gentle,loving,haggling,indecisive,dependent,timid.Study 2:the content of gender stereotypes about the elderly was investigated through three studies.Study 2A and 2B examine the gender stereotypes about the elderly from the young people and old people respectively.The results show that young people and old people hold gender stereotypes to older women.Young people hold gender stereotypes to older men,while old people do not hold gender stereotypes to older men.Study 2C examine the gender self-stereotypes of the elderly.The results show that older men have gender counter-stereotypes about themselves and older women have gender stereotypes about themselves.Study 3:three studies were conducted to investigate the influence of gender stereotypes on attitude evaluation about the elderly.Study 3A and study 3B examine the effects of gender stereotypes on the attitude evaluation of young people and old people,respectively.The results show that young people and the old people have a more positive attitude evaluation to gender counter-stereotyped older men,young people have a more positive attitude evaluation to gender stereotyped older women,while old people have a more positive attitude evaluation to gender counter-stereotyped older women.Study 3C examine the influence of gender stereotypes on self-evaluation of the elderly.the results show that older men have a more positive attitude towards gender counter-stereotyped self,while older women have a more positive evaluation to gender stereotyped self.Through three research results,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)People hold stable gender stereotypes about older women and hold unstable gender stereotypes about older men.That is,young people hold gender stereotypes about older men,while old people do not hold gender stereotypes about older men(who are considered androgynous or neutral)(2)People have more positive and stable attitude evaluation to the counter-gender stereotyped older men and hold unstable attitude evaluation to gender(counter-)stereotyped older women.That is,young people have more positive attitude evaluation to gender stereotyped older women,while old people have more positive attitude evaluation to gender counter-stereotyped older women.(3)In terms ofgender self-stereotypes and its influence on attitude evaluation,older men hold gender counter-stereotypes about themselves and have more positive attitude evaluation to gender counter-stereotyped self.Older women hold a gender stereotype about themselves and have more positive attitude evaluation to gender stereotyped self.