Physiognomic Cues to Age and the Activation of Stereotypes of the Elderly in Interaction

Abstract

This article reports the results of a study on the relationship between physiognomic cues to age and the activation of positive versus negative stereotypes of elderly individuals in interaction. Predictions were based upon a model of the role of elderly stereotypes in interaction. One group of undergraduates sorted photographs of elderly adults into four age categories, fifty-five to sixty-four, sixty-five to seventy-four, seventy-five and older, and other. Those photographs that were placed in the same age category by two-thirds or more of the students were used as a pool for the second phase of the study. This process produced a set of twenty-four photographs, eight (4 male and 4 female) from each of the three elderly age groups. A second group of students paired these photographs with sets of traits describing ten stereotypes of elderly persons, some positive and some negative. Results indicated that, as predicted by the stereotype-communication model, participants associated the positive stereotypes of elderly individuals with young-old physiognomic characteristics, whereas they associated the negative ones with old-old physiognomy. The results also suggested that gender may be a component of some stereotypes, and that some physiognomic characteristics may be considered prototypical of particular stereotypes. These results illustrate the importance of passive nonverbal elements of the communication situation in the activation of stereotypes of elderly individuals in interaction.