Stereotypes with Respect to Elderly Employees: The Contribution of Attribute Information and Representativeness

✍ Scribed by A. VRUGT; M. SCHABRACQ

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 374 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1052-9284
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1298(199610)6:4<287::aid-casp376>3.0.co;2-s

✦ Synopsis

The present study has investigated whether stereotypes about older employees with a university education are influenced by attribute, i.e. individuating, information and the representativeness of the employee for his social group. Written descriptions were used in which the age of the employee (younger than 30 or older than 55), attribute information (preference for fixed tasks, fixed tasks with little variation or varying were varied tasks), and representativeness (representative or unrepresentative for the group as a whole). The results showed that stereotype-inconsistent attribute information weakened the contribution of the stereotype, It was further found that lack of representativeness enhanced the effects of inconsistent attribute information.