Age Discrimination

Peter Lasslett once said: "We must live in the prescence of our future selves". The research findings below certainly show that this must be the case.

Research undertaken by Proffessor Abrams of University of kent found:

•From age 55 onwards, people are nearly twice as likely to have experienced age prejudice than any other form of discrimination
•Nearly 30% of people believe there is more prejudice against the old than five years ago, and that this will continue to get worse
•One third of people think that the demographic shift towards an older society will make life worse in terms of standards of living, security, health, jobs and education
•One in three respondents said they viewed the over-70s as incompetent and incapable.
One key point is that a half of all people under the age of 24 have no friends over 70, and vice versa. And the data shows that those without intergenerational friendships are also more likely to hold negative beliefs about the competence of people over 70.
"Inter-group contact and positive relationships across the generations seem to be an important mechanism for combating ageist stereotypes," Professor Abrams said.