Disrespect your elders: an age of slights and slurs against older adults
On 30th June 2016, a week after the referendum vote, Deborah headed out to the bank on her lunch break. As she waited to cross the road, a young woman passed her. In an exchange that lasted less than ten seconds, she was spat at and verbally abused for ‘ruining the future of the country’. Deborah was 67.
An outpour of vitriol and anti-older-adult rhetoric has exploded since the Brexit vote. Whether through face-to-face confrontations, Twitter outbursts or negative coverage in the press, older adults have been widely scapegoated.
This has occurred alongside a class war that precedes the referendum. It’s been less a battle between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, more a long-standing resentment of the status quo and traditional political powers.
The two facets of older age and class have been conflated and attacked in the recent video released and publicised by Momentum, the grassroots left-wing movement.
This video, widely shared on social media, will only further exacerbate prejudice against older adults. According to Momentum, it reached nearly half a million Facebook users in less than five hours. This is in an era when 60% of adults aged over 65 believe that age discrimination affects older people’s everyday lives, with a similar percentage identifying it in the workplace (Age UK, 2009). When inter-generational divides and conflict continue to cause challenges in life and at work ( Gaillard & Desmette, 2010). And when the culmination of these conflicts and stereotypes means poorer health and a shorter lifespan, due to stereotype embodiment theory (Levy, 2009).
They just don’t get it
But beyond all that, the video (and the rest of the hyperbole and vitriol) is factually incorrect.
Let’s start with the referendum vote. Clearly there is a skew towards ‘leave’ in the 65+ age group. But there are equal skews from the age of 45–65, while the age group of 35–44 is evenly split.
A bigger factor is that 83% of 65+ adults turned out to vote, while only 36% of 18–24 and 58% of 35–44 year olds did the same. Instead of framing older adults, a more accurate position would be that the young’s parents, as well as older relatives, voted for Brexit.
But in data presented by the Financial Times (2016) we see that beyond age, other factors were stronger predictors of whether people voted to leave. For instance: whether people had a degree or not, whether people had a professional role and (perhaps a little strangely) whether people had a passport or not. All of these elements show some of the class factors at play in the Brexit vote.
More broadly speaking, researchers have looked at stereotypes of older adults, e.g. that they are more resistant and less willing to change or that they are less trusting (Ng & Feldman, 2012). Of the seven stereotypes they explored, they found minimal evidence for one (that older adults tend to avoid learning and training opportunities). It’s not only older adults. Myths, found to be fake, abound for Millennials (Mind Gym, 2015). All of this points to age being a pointless means of grouping and generalising what will always be a collection of diverse individuals.
Momentum went further in their bid to energise younger voters, by fusing age with class, focusing on well-spoken, white older adults. It remains that they are relying on baseless stereotyping. While undoubtedly some adults that fit these demographics will have views consistent with the video, the majority will not. And it is the majority of older adults that propaganda like this will ultimately harm.
In a Britain full of trench warfare between divided groups, older adults are yet another, often unrecognised, category of scapegoats. Beware the myths and falsities purporting them this way. A few grey hairs require neither respect nor resentment. Just remembrance that every individual should be treated judged individually.
Things to read so you ‘get it’
1. Age UK. (2009). One voice: Shaping our ageing society. London: Age UK.
2. Gaillard & Desmette. (2010). (In)validating stereotypes about older workers influences their intentions to retire early and to learn and develop. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 32, 86–95.
3. Levy. (2009). Stereotype embodiment: A psychosocial approach to aging. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10(6), 332–336.
4. Financial Times (2016). http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/2016/06/24/brexit-demographic-divide-eu-referendum-results/
5. Ng & Feldman. (2012). Evaluating six common stereotypes about older workers with meta-analytical data. Personnel Psychology, 65, 821–858.
6. Mind Gym. http://us.mindgym.odev.cjsoft.org/busting-the-millennial-myths/
About the author
Iain is a Business Psychologist working for Mind Gym. He is currently completing his part-time PhD on ageist behaviours at the University of Nottingham.
