MATTER OVER MIND: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON THE ACTIVATION OF AGING STEREOTYPES

S. Marques ¹ , M.R. Ramos ¹ , J. Cruz ² , M.S. Dias ^2,3 , S. Eloy ² , M. Carreiro ^2,4 , E. Vilar ^2,5 , 1. Centre for Psychological Research and Social Intervention, Lisbon University Institute ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal,2. ISTAR - Information Sciences, Technologies and Arquitecture Research Center, Lisbon University Institute ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal,3. Microsoft Language Development Center, Lisbon, Portugal,4. DINAMIA/CET, Lisbon University Institute ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal,5. Centre for Architecture, Urban Planning and Design (CIAUD/FA-ULisboa), Lisbon, Portugal

Research shows that the activation of aging stereotypes has significant effects over older people’s performance across multiple domains. The significance of these results has promoted interventions to change ageist representations in society. However, little is known about the activation of the reversed “outcome-stereotype” link. Therefore, in this paper we examined whether outcome activation leads to the activation of the associated aging stereotype. Specifically, we tested whether older people’s (N = 30) navigation in a threatening virtual reality spatial environment increases the activation of the “doddering, but dear” aging stereotype (i.e., consistent with the stereotype content model’s proposition that older people are perceived to be warm but incompetent). Results showed, both with explicit and implicit measures, that the environment activates and reinforces negative age stereotypes. We discuss the implications that our findings have for theory and practice, and its further consequences for an aging population.