Looking to the Future: How Possible Aged Selves Influence Prejudice Toward Older Adults

Ageism is thought to be a unique form of prejudice due to the fact that humans change age group memberships as they age and grow old. The current research investigated how increasing the salience of their future aged selves would affect young adults' expressions of prejudice toward older adults. Taking a social identity approach, we hypothesized that young adults' identification with their current age group would moderate the effects of a future self exercise on ageism. In two studies, strongly identified young adults expressed less positive attitudes toward older adults after writing about themselves at 70, perhaps because thoughts of aged selves were threatening to them. Conversely, the future self exercise increased positive attitudes among weakly identified young adults in Study 2. Study 2 also demonstrated the effects of imagining a future self to be distinct from the effects of a perspective–taking exercise. The role of future social identity concerns in the expression of ageism is discussed.