3 Ways That Negative Stereotypes About Aging Become Reality

Negative stereotypes about older adults can have wide-ranging consequences. In medical settings, for example, stereotypes about cognitive decline might lead providers to withhold medical explanations or make decisions for patients without their input.

Compounding the effects of age discrimination, stereotypes can also do damage by impacting older adults’ own self-perceptions, making them more likely to see themselves as useless or in decline, which can in turn impact their health. In a review of research on this topic, researchers describe three reasons why this happens.

1. Expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Expectations are surprisingly powerful. One experiment  found that when older adults were exposed to subtle reminders of negative age-related stereotypes (such as being senile or frail), compared to positive ones (like being wise or spry), they expected to perform worse on cognitive and physical tasks assessing memory and balance. When the researchers measured actual performance on the tasks, they found that it reflected those expectations, with the group exposed to negative stereotypes performing worse—even though there was no objective difference in ability between the two groups.

These result s don’t suggest that cognitive and physical function is all in our heads, though. No matter how positive our expectations, some obstacles are immovable, and accepting limit ations can be a source of strength and resilience. Rather, what these findings reveal is that negative expectations may limit our ability to perform at our full potential. and when negative stereotypes are ever-present in news stories, casual conversations, and medical interactions, it can be difficult to avoid their influence.

2. When decline seems inevitable, health behavior change may feel futile.

Stereotypes that portray older adults as being in a state of functional decline may lead them to feel that adopting new healthy habits is pointless, another study  found, as they may believe that decline will occur no matter what. In contrast to this perspective, research suggests that health behavior change— from increased physical activity to healthy eating to sleep hygiene—is beneficial at any age. Those with a more optimistic view of aging were found to be more likely to adopt health-promoting behaviors and proactively address problems when they arose (such as arthritis pain, hearing loss, or  sleep lessness), rather than resigning themselves to them.