Structure of perceptions of older adults: evidence for multiple stereotypes

We examined the possibility that people hold multiple stereotypes of the elderly. Subjects were male and female university students. In the first phase of our study, stereotype content was sampled by asking subjects to describe the typical old person. In the second phase of the study, different subjects sorted traits from Phase 1 descriptions into one or more groups. Each group contained those traits that subjects felt could be found in one and the same older adult. Attitudes toward the stereotypes were also assessed. A distance matrix, based on the number of subjects who sorted each pair of traits into different groups, was analyzed by hierarchical cluster analysis. Evidence for multiple stereotypes was found both in the presence of contradictory traits given in Phase 1 descriptions and in the structure of the clusters. Different attitudes are identified for the cluster-defined stereotypes.