Silenced Inequalities: Too Young or Too Old?

When prejudice against you hurts others and me: The case of ageism at work

“…On average, participants reported low levels of intergroup anxiety and counterproductive behaviors, from low to moderate levels of ageism (depending on its component), medium level of citizenship behaviors, and medium-high levels of quality of contact and organizational identification. When "younger" participants (less than 45 years) were compared to "older" participants (45 years or above), we found that the former reported significantly higher levels of age- M old = 5.04, t test = −3.939, p = .000).These findings are in line with the common belief that prejudice against older workers is more severe than that against younger workers (Wu, 2019).…”

“…On average, participants reported low levels of intergroup anxiety and counterproductive behaviors, from low to moderate levels of ageism (depending on its component), medium level of citizenship behaviors, and medium‐high levels of quality of contact and organizational identification. When “younger” participants (less than 45 years) were compared to “older” participants (45 years or above), we found that the former reported significantly higher levels of ageism (cognitive component: M young = 3.13, M old = 2.95, t test = 2.031, p = .043; affective component: M young = 2.48; M old = 2.19, t test = 4.281, p = .000; behavioral component: M young = 3.83; M old = 2.92, t test = 9.629, p = .000), higher intergroup anxiety (M young = 2.11; M old = 1.76, t test = 3.840, p = .000), poorer quality of contact (M young = 4.47; M old = 4.84, t test = −4.453, p = .000) and lower levels of organizational identification (M young = 4.68; M old = 5.04, t test = −3.939, p = .000).These findings are in line with the common belief that prejudice against older workers is more severe than that against younger workers (Wu, ).…”