So how are you celebrating? This coming Saturday, October 7th, is Ageism Awareness Day, a day that’s intended to draw attention to the needless ageism that exists in our society, which harms both individuals and the larger public health and economy. The irony, of course, is that many of us are all too aware of ageism as we regularly encounter it in our day-to-day lives. The challenge for us all is to enlighten and educate younger generations who may be unaware of the harm their ageist attitudes cause or are insensitive to the impact of ageist attitudes on older adults. 

As a reminder, ageist attitudes can surface in a variety of ways. They can be internalized and self-inflicted (believing that due to your age, you cannot do certain activities or take advantage of certain options); they can be cultural (stereotypical imagery or prejudices broadcast through social media or marketing); they can be implicit (when a doctor unintentionally addresses an adult child rather than the older patient): and they can be benevolent (speaking loudly because you assume the older person you’re addressing can’t hear you). It’s likely all of us, at one time or another, have been guilty of this sort of bias, even if we’re unaware and doing so with the best of intentions. Think you know all there is to know about ageism? Take this quiz to find out what unconscious bias you yourself have. Or try testing yourself with an Implicit Bias Test available from Harvard here.

Many of us (despite being in our later years) have internalized bias against older people ourselves, which can produce harmful effects on our own health and well-being. It’s believed that ageist attitudes are learned and ingrained at a very young age. A number of recent studies have explored the ageist attitudes of young people and how they can be countered before they reach a level of maturity. For example, in a recent study published in PLOS One, researchers studied over 600 videos on TikTok (a social media platform primarily for teenagers) that were viewed over 5 billion times. Using hashtags #Boomer and #OkBoomer, the researchers were able to determine that fully half of these videos contained content about older adults that spread negative ageist attitudes. The researchers concluded that such negative content may stem from negative interactions with older people and that it’s imperative that such interactions be countered with more positive interactions between the generations. Similarly, a recent study in BMC Psychology found that when grandchildren had positive interactions with grandparents, this intergenerational contact led to reduced negative attitudes about older people. In other words, intergenerational relationships and understanding can be key to lessening ageism in our society. In fact, there’s currently a pilot program going on in NYC high schools to ensure teenagers (many of whom learned negative stereotypes about older people from watching Disney movies as young children) understand what ageism is and what real-world consequences can occur when ageist attitudes are spread. As one expert made clear, “Ageism is not innate, ageism is taught, which means that we can change that, that we have the power to change that.”

That means that all of us have a role to play in order to lessen and eliminate the ageism that we face. Whether it be ridding ourselves of negative attitudes that limit our activities or interacting with younger people so that they learn that the stereotypes of older adults are untrue, we can all do our part to create a better image- and reality- for older people in our society. Want to start on something yourself? Even just monitoring or watching your language can make a difference. Or living your life in ways that defy ageist stereotypes. For some examples, take a look at the people recently profiled by Maria Shriver here.