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Racial Prejudice and the Elderly

Racial Prejudice and the Elderly. Summary. White elderly populations hold more racial prejudices than younger generations More likely to rely on stereotypes “Old people are products of less enlightened times…and they are unlikely to change.” Physiological influences

marcell-connor
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Racial Prejudice and the Elderly

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  1. Racial Prejudice and the Elderly

  2. Summary • White elderly populations hold more racial prejudices than younger generations • More likely to rely on stereotypes • “Old people are products of less enlightened times…and they are unlikely to change.” • Physiological influences • Less inhibition of voicing prejudices due to atrophy of the frontal lobe

  3. Summary • Disapprove of interracial dating: • 35% Americans 60 years or older • 16% Baby boomers • 6% Americans 30 years or younger • Implicit biases • Whites aged 60 or older have 5-10% more biases than younger participants

  4. The “Bradley Effect” • Implicit prejudice affects behavior • Obama finished far worse than polls predicted in four states with relatively low black populations. • Disconnect between what they say and what they do • How will this affect the election? • Impossible to know which anti-Obama feelings are related to prejudice

  5. “Stereotyping Against Your Will” • Participants read a story about a student athlete named Jamal or a honors student named John • Formed impression about the social identity of John/Jamal • Told to ignore the individual’s background information or perceived social identity • Series of questionnaires, included questions about his intelligence • Read paragraph containing distracting text • Tested ability to inhibit the awareness of this text

  6. Results and Conclusions • Older participants: • Read paragraphs with distracters more slowly • Perceived Jamal’s intelligence to be significantly lower than John’s • Conclusions: reduced ability to inhibit results in greater use of negative stereotypes and prejudices • Elderly participants rely on stereotypes more often • Older participants had greater motivation to control expression of prejudiced thoughts • Try to inhibit the learned stereotypes from an earlier era, yet unable

  7. Post-election • Elderly white population’s prejudices did not affect Obama’s win • What about the opposite effect: black populations who voted for Obama because of his race?

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