Age bias doesn’t show up only as discrimination or snarky birthday cards. One potent source of ageism comes from older people themselves.
By Emily Laber-Warren in the Washington Post (Thanks to T&T)
Louise Pendry was teaching a psychology course in a cramped classroom at the University of Exeter when she found herself awkwardly climbing over her desk to allow students to come to the front and present. Her legs got caught in some equipment cables, and she lost her balance.
Pendry, a senior lecturer, quipped to her students, “I’m not the woman I used to be, clearly.”
Ironically, the course was about stereotyping. After class, a student suggested that Pendry had engaged in age bias — against herself.
“And I thought, ‘absolutely true,’” Pendry, 57, said. “You know what? Anybody would have struggled to clamber over those desks. It wasn’t just because I was older.”
Age bias doesn’t show up only as blatant discrimination (“We want someone younger for that job.”) or snarky birthday cards. One of the most potent sources of ageism comes from older people themselves, and like other forms of ageism, the self-inflicted kind is associated with lower levels of emotional and physical health and can slash years off people’s lives.
People, however, can shift these negative feelings to improve their well-being. When older people are reminded of the many positive things about aging, they can experience immediate benefits such as becoming stronger and having more will to live, said Becca Levy, a professor of epidemiology and psychology at the Yale School of Public Health who is a leading expert on the health effects of ageism.
“Age beliefs are not set in stone,” said Levy, author of “Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & Well You Live.” “They’re malleable. That’s a really key piece.”