Implicit inhibition of intergenerational ageism in a young-adult population

Prior research has demonstrated that it is possible to implicitly inhibit the activation of stereotype cues for a racial category. The current project aims to determine if a similar outcome is possible when encountering an age-based stereotype cue. Study procedures attempted to inhibit the activation of age-based stereotypes, compared to a control condition, by making participants cognitively busy (i.e. rehearsing an eight-digit number during a word completion task). Based on alternative theories of implicit stereotype inhibition, additional conditions, which attempted to evoke explicit and implicit egalitarian goals were introduced into the design of Study 2 to determine their influence on the inhibition of age-based stereotypes. Over two studies, stereotypic content did not seem to be inhibited at an implicit level. Nevertheless, participants who had egalitarian goals implicitly activated subsequently expressed lower levels of explicit ageism, compared to those in a control condition, specifically with regard to beliefs that older adults consume a disproportionate amount of shared, limited societal resources. Limitations and future directions are discussed.