title: Influence of African American elders' age stereotypes on their cardiovascular response to stress.
abstract: Although it has been shown that White elders are vulnerable to the influence of age stereotypes, it was not known whether this effect applied to African American elders. In the present study, African American elders were randomly assigned to negative or positive implicit-age-stereotype groups. Compared to participants in the positive age-stereotype group, those in the negative age-stereotype group demonstrated significantly more elevated cardiovascular response to stress, as measured by blood pressure and heart rate following mental challenges. These results suggest that negative age stereotypes generate a susceptibility to stress among African American elders, whereas positive age may provide them with a defense against this stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8034, USA. Becca.Levy@yale.edu
authors.forename: Becca R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Ryall
authors.forename: Corey E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Pilver
authors.forename: Pamela L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Sheridan
authors.forename: Jeanne Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hausdorff
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D001290:Attitude / Q000208:ethnology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D013240:Stereotyping; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D014825:Vocabulary