title: Age Bias in the Workplace: Cultural Stereotypes and In-Group Favoritism.
abstract: Two key theoretical frameworks that explain why people might hold biases for or against a specific age group-cultural stereotypes and in-group favoritism-yield distinct and sometimes contradictory predictions. This study proposes a combined framework drawing on these two theories and then tests hypotheses based on this framework in the workplace context. Using survey data from U.S. employees of two pharmaceutical companies, we evaluated the extent to which respondents attributed characteristics related to innovation or change and reliable performance to other workers based on perceived relative age (the age of the target relative to the age of the respondent). The hypotheses that our combined framework generated were supported, but the results varied by type of characteristic as well as by age of the respondent. We conclude that the combined framework is more predictive of age bias in the workplace than either individual framework alone.
authors.affiliation: Center on Aging & Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA mcnamatd@bc.edu.
authors.forename: Tay K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: McNamara
authors.affiliation: Center on Aging & Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA School of Social Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Marcie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pitt-Catsouphes
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Natasha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sarkisian
authors.affiliation: Center for Disability Research, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Elyssa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Besen
authors.affiliation: Transperfect, New York, NY IRIS Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Miwako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kidahashi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D063506:Ageism / Q000523:psychology*; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: age bias; cultural stereotypes; in-group favoritism; older workers