Title: Stereotype embodiment theory - Wikipedia
Headings: Stereotype embodiment theory
Stereotype embodiment theory
Contents
Theoretical premises
Internalization of stereotypes across the life span
Unconscious operation of age stereotypes
Salience gain from self-relevance
Utilization of multiple pathways
History
References

Content: Hence, younger adult workers tend to assume that older adult workers are less productive than their younger counterparts even when regular contact with older adult workers proves these assumptions inaccurate. Unconscious operation of age stereotypes
See also: Implicit stereotype
Age stereotypes have been shown to operate unconsciously. For instance, a 1990 study by Purdue and Gurtman demonstrated that the associations made by their college-aged participants between certain negative traits and old age had an "automatic" component, such that, when their participants were subliminally primed (i.e., presented with stimuli at speeds sufficient for perception, but not recognition) with the word "old", they made associations with negative traits significantly faster than when they were subliminally primed with the word "young". Unconscious operation of age stereotypes in older individuals was demonstrated for the first time by Levy (1996) in an experimental study that showed age stereotypes can impact memory of older individuals. These age stereotype-memory findings have been replicated in a number of different laboratories. Additional subliminal priming experiments have further linked the unconscious activation of age stereotypes to an individual's "will to live", such that older adults subliminally exposed to positive age stereotypes tended to accept life-prolonging interventions, while those exposed to negative age stereotypes tended to reject such interventions. Additionally, research conducted using the implicit-association test method has found further evidence for the presence of robust age stereotypes that operate independently of explicitly held age stereotypes. Levy and Mahzarin Banaji are credited with coining the term "implicit ageism" to describe the unconscious operation of age stereotypes and age prejudice. Salience gain from self-relevance
Levy (2003), in paraphrasing Snyder and Miene (1994), notes that "the old is the only outgroup that inevitably becomes an ingroup for individuals who live long enough" (pp.