Age-related stigma and the golden section hypothesis

Does the Reverse Golden Section Hold?

“…These two combined stigmatized identities were assigned to the positive poles of bipolar adjective dimensions in a pattern not statistically different from the positive reverse golden section mean of 38.2%. Widrick and Raskin (2010) offered further evidence for the reverse golden section ratio, finding that people rated "elderly person" and "senior citizen" identities using a reverse golden section pattern. These two studies support the proposition that evaluations of "atypical" populations, in this case stigmatized identities, tend to be organized in a manner consistent with the reverse golden section hypothesis (Benjafield & Green, 1978).…”

“…This constitutes the "reverse" golden section hypothesis. It assumes that in evaluating atypical populations, what is considered typical and atypical switch; negative elements form the background whole against which the usually commonplace positive traits are distinguished as atypical (Benjafield & Green, 1978;Raskin, Harasym, Mercuri, & Widrick, 2008;Widrick & Raskin, 2010).…”

Considerations Surrounding the Effects of Race, Age, and Gender on GED Success among Jail Inmates

“…Widrick and Raskin (2010) found that age was empirically connected to outcomes, and that it also carries with it a stigma that could have an important impact. Additionally, Spohn (2013) discovered that a complex intermixture of age and gender factors, working in concert with race, affected sentencing outcome.…”

Suicide among elders: a Durkheimian proposal

“…One structural factor that increases the probability that the elderly will move into the Egoistic Danger Zone is that younger people have a tendency to avoid the elderly (Bousfield 2010;Widrick 2010). Although avoidance of the elderly is common in general (Mulder 1987), it remains less common within the family setting.…”