Ageism Linked to Culture, Not Demographics: Evidence From an 8-Billion-Word Corpus Across 20 Countries

Abstract

Objectives Ageism has increased over 200 years and costs the US healthcare system $63 billion a year. While scholars agree on the consequences of ageism, there are disagreements on whether it is related to the demographics of aging, or society’s cultural values. We test both hypotheses across 20 countries. Methods To circumvent the sampling limitations of survey studies, we used an 8-billion-word corpus, identified three synonyms with the highest prevalence—aged, elderly, old people—and compiled the top 300 words (collocates) that were used most frequently with these synonyms for each of the 20 countries. The resulting 6000 collocates were rated on an ageism scale by two raters to create an ageism score per country. Cultural dimension scores— Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance Long-term Orientation—were taken from Hofstede, and demographics—size and speed of population aging—came from the World Development Indicators. Results Of the 20 countries, UK topped the ageism table while Sri Lanka had the lowest ageism score. Multiple regression models showed that higher levels of masculinity and long-term orientation are associated with ageism, controlling for other cultural dimensions, demographics (size and speed of aging), and economics (GDP-per-capita). Discussion Our findings blunt the deterministic nature of ageism at the societal level. Demographics is only one side of the ageism coin, and the cultural side is equally, if not more important. This study lays the groundwork to tackle societal ageism—one of our generation’s most pernicious threats.

HIV and Aging: Double Stigma

“…Ageism was also associated with dementia-related anxiety or the fear of developing Alzheimer's disease and related dementias [28]. Nevertheless, at the structural level, ageism has been shown to be linked to cultural aspects such as greater levels of masculinity and long-term orientation ("the extent to which a culture programs its members to accept delayed gratification of their material, social, and emotional needs") [29]. Ageism has shown to be significantly reduced when the percentage of older adults is greater and with greater increases in life expectancy [30].…”

Ageism and the Factors Affecting Ageism among Korean Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…In general, Eastern Asian cultures are known to have a higher respect for older adults than Western culture [ 25 ]. Ageism is a concept interpreted within the social and cultural context [ 35 ]; this result should take the Korean socio-cultural environment into account, specifically the rapid increase in the older adults population [ 2 ].…”

“…Donizzetti [ 45 ] reported a positive correlation between age and ageism, while Kim and Ha [ 16 ] found that age is not associated with ageism. Cultural factors that are rapidly increasing the aging population in South Korea could also affect ageism [ 35 ]. Since our study was conducted with nursing students between the ages of 18 and 29, the age range is very limited.…”

Societal perceptions of caregivers linked to culture across 20 countries: Evidence from a 10-billion-word database

“…Past studies [38][39][40][41][42][43] controlled for GDP per capita to test the possible influence of level of development or modernization on ageism. In keeping with these studies, we controlled for GDP per capital to test the influence of a country's level of development on societal perceptions of caregivers.…”