Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 50, Issue 2 P82-P93, Copyright © 1995 by The Gerontological Society of America
Perceiving middle-aged adults: effects of stereotype-congruent and incongruent information
J Krueger, J Heckhausen and J Hundertmark
Department of Psychology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
Normative beliefs about mid-life involve stereotypic expectations about
age-appropriate development and behavior. This study examined the effects
of violations of the stereotypic clock on interpersonal judgments. Each
subject read descriptions of persons who, given their position in life,
appeared to be 30, 45, or 60 years old. In the experimental condition but
not in the control condition, stereotypic expectations about mid-life were
activated by explicitly stating that the person was 45 years old. As
predicted, subjects judged stereotype- incongruent persons against the
background of stereotypic age-related expectations. Subjects evaluated
unusually advanced persons (women in particular) more positively, and
unusually delayed persons more negatively than stereotype-congruent
persons. Stereotype-incongruent persons were rated as less typical,
elicited greater surprise, and afforded more extensive causal explanations
than stereotype-congruent persons.
