Acceptability of Ageism: The Role of Ageism Type, Relationship Type, and Age of the Perceiever

Ageism is prejudice towards a person based on their age, and can be either benevolent or hostile. This study was designed to determine if there is a significant difference between the perceived acceptability of benevolent and hostile ageist acts and whether that varies depending on the nature of the relationship between the person who is engaging in the ageist behavior and recipient. Young (18-34) and middle-aged (35-59) participants completed two surveys. First, participants rated the acceptability of 13 benevolent acts and 17 hostile acts. Next, participants rated how the acceptability of these acts varied for five different relationship types (younger family member, same-age family member, friend, familiar service worker, and unfamiliar service worker). Benevolent acts were rated as significantly more acceptable than hostile acts. There was no significant age difference in the perceived acceptability of benevolent ageist acts. However, young adults rated hostile acts as significantly more acceptable than middle-aged adults. We also found that the perceived acceptability of the ageist acts was positively correlated with the familiarity between the initiator and the recipient. This pattern held true across both types of ageism and both age groups. These results show that perceptions of ageism are multifaceted and depend on many factors such as the relationship type, ageism type, and age of the perceiver. Future work on this study will entail the collection of data from older adults. This will help determine whether older adults are more or less sensitive to ageist behaviors than their younger counterparts.