The complementation of the stereotype embodiment theory: Focusing on the social identity theory

Elderly people are unique among various discriminated social groups (e.g., black, LGBT) because we all, sooner or later, come to be seen with the negative stereotype. People internalize the negative age stereotype (e.g., incompetent, out-of-date) through life, which has undesirable effects on themselves when they get older. We give an overview of the Stereotype Embodiment Theory (SET; Levy, 2009), consisting of four processes: internalization, unconscious operation, salience gain from self-relevance, and utilization of multiple pathways. The SET discusses the process of generating age stereotype through life, internalizing the stereotype, and the impact toward self. The theory helps to explain the process of elderly adults’ self-stereotyping but the SET cannot fully explain an empirically known tendency—a mixed finding that elderly people try to separate themselves from other elderly adults while they are also heavily influenced by negative age stereotypes (e.g., showing a decline in the score of memory tasks). To complement the SET, we introduce the Social Identity Theory (SIT; Tajfel, 1981), which is often used to show the process of generating stereotype among various social groups. By attributing the elderly’s identity to the younger age group, elderly people aim to detach themselves from other people of about the same age. Meanwhile, they face lots of social requests from other generations (e.g., “Elderly adults should not accumulate wealth, but pass it on to the next generation.”) and many opportunities to recognize that they are “the elderly,” which force them to attribute their identity to “the elderly group” appropriate for age. This process makes elderly adults to acquire the self-relevance to the negative age stereotype. The SET itself and the complementation of the theory help to discuss how to decrease undesirable effects of self-stereotyping on elderly people. Although there are some unresolved problems, this study provides a guideline for the literature.