Stereotypes of Age Differences in Personality Traits: Universal and Accurate?
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Journal of Personality and Social Psychology © 2012 American Psychological Association 2012, Vol. ●●, No. ●, 000–000 0022-3514/12/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0029712 Stereotypes of Age Differences in Personality Traits: Universal and Accurate? Wayne Chan Robert R. McCrae National Institute on Aging Baltimore, Maryland Filip De Fruyt Lee Jussim Ghent University Rutgers University Corinna E. Löckenhoff Marleen De Bolle Cornell University Ghent University Paul T. Costa Jr. and Angelina R. Sutin Anu Realo National Institute on Aging University of Tartu Ju¨ri Allik Katsuharu Nakazato University of Tartu and the Estonian Academy of Sciences Iwate Prefectural University Yoshiko Shimonaka Martina Hrˇebı´cˇkova´ and Sylvie Graf Bunkyo Gakuin University Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Michelle Yik Marina Brunner-Sciarra Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Cayetano Heredia University Nora Leibovich de Figueora and Vanina Schmidt Chang-kyu Ahn University of Buenos Aires Pusan National University Hyun-nie Ahn Maria E. Aguilar-Vafaie Ewha Womans University Tarbiat Modares University Jerzy Siuta and Barbara Szmigielska Thomas R. Cain Jagiellonian University Hampshire College Jarret T. Crawford Khairul Anwar Mastor The College of New Jersey Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Jean-Pierre Rolland Florence Nansubuga Universite´ Paris Ouest Nanterre La De´fense Makerere University Daniel R. Miramontez Veronica Benet-Martı´nez San Diego Community College District Pompeu Fabra University Je´roˆme Rossier Denis Bratko University of Lausanne University of Zagreb Iris Marušic´ Jamin Halberstadt and Mami Yamaguchi Institute for Social Research in Zagreb University of Otago 1 2 CHAN ET AL. Goran Kneževic´ Thomas A. Martin Belgrade University Susquehanna University Mirona Gheorghiu Peter B. Smith Queens University University of Sussex Claudio Barbaranelli Lei Wang La Sapienza University Peking University Jane Shakespeare-Finch Margarida P. Lima Queensland University of Technology University of Coimbra Waldemar Klinkosz and Andrzej Sekowski Lidia Alcalay and Franco Simonetti John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Pontificia Universidad Cato´lica de Chile Tatyana V. Avdeyeva V. S. Pramila University of St. Thomas Andhra University Antonio Terracciano National Institute on Aging Bratko, Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; Wayne Chan, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland; Robert Iris Marušic´, Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; R. McCrae, Baltimore, Maryland; Filip De Fruyt, Department of Devel- Jamin Halberstadt and Mami Yamaguchi, Department of Psychology, opmental, Personality, and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; Goran Kneževic´, Department Belgium; Lee Jussim, Department of Psychology, Rutgers University; of Psychology, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia; Thomas A. Martin, Corinna E. Löckenhoff, Department of Human Development, Cornell Department of Psychology, Susquehanna University; Mirona Gheorghiu, University; Marleen De Bolle, Department of Developmental, Personality, School of Psychology, Queens University, Belfast, United Kingdom; Peter and Social Psychology, Ghent University; Paul T. Costa Jr. and Angelina B. Smith, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, United R. Sutin, National Institute on Aging; Anu Realo, Department of Psychol- Kingdom; Claudio Barbaranelli, Department of Psychology, La Sapienza ogy, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia; Ju¨ri Allik, Department of Psy- University, Rome, Italy; Lei Wang, Department of Psychology, Peking chology, University of Tartu and the Estonian Academy of Sciences, University, Beijing, China; Jane Shakespeare-Finch, School of Psychology Tallinn, Estonia; Katsuharu Nakazato, Faculty of Social Welfare, Iwate and Counseling, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Austra- Prefectural University, Iwate, Japan; Yoshiko Shimonaka, Department of lia; Margarida P. Lima, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, Human Studies, Bunkyo Gakuin University, Bunkyo, Japan; Martina University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal; Waldemar Klinkosz and An- Hrˇebı´cˇkova´ and Sylvie Graf, Institute of Psychology, Academy of Sciences drzej Sekowski, Department of Psychology, John Paul II Catholic Univer- of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic; Michelle Yik, Division of sity of Lublin, Lublin, Poland; Lidia Alcalay and Franco Simonetti, Es- Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kow- cuela de Psicologı´a, Pontificia Universidad Cato´lica de Chile, Santiago, loon, Hong Kong; Marina Brunner-Sciarra, Faculty of Psychology, Cay- Chile; Tatyana V. Avdeyeva, Graduate School of Professional Psychology, etano Heredia University, Lima, Peru; Nora Leibovich de Figueora and University of St. Thomas; V. S. Pramila, Department of Psychology, Vanina Schmidt, Department of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India; Antonio Terracciano, National Buenos Aires, Argentina; Chang-kyu Ahn, Department of Education, Pu- Institute on Aging. san National University, Busan, South Korea; Hyun-nie Ahn, Department This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of Psychology, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea; Maria E. of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging. Robert R. Aguilar-Vafaie, Department of Psychology, Tarbiat Modares University, McCrae and Paul T. Costa Jr. receive royalties from the NEO Inventories. Tehran, Iran; Jerzy Siuta and Barbara Szmigielska, Institute of Psychology, Anu Realo and Ju¨ri Allik were supported by Estonian Ministry of Educa- Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; Thomas R. Cain, School of tion and Science Grant SF0180029s08. Martina Hrˇebı´cˇkova´ and Sylvie Cognitive Science, Hampshire College; Jarret T. Crawford, Department of Graf were supported by Czech Science Foundation Grant P407/10/2394. Psychology, The College of New Jersey; Khairul Anwar Mastor, School of Portions of this research were presented at the 13th Annual Meeting of the General Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia; Jean- Society for Personality and Social Psychology, January 26–28, 2012, San Pierre Rolland, UFR STAPS, Universite´ Paris Ouest Nanterre La De´fence, Diego, CA, and at the 16th European Conference on Personality, July Nanterre, France; Florence Nansubuga, Institute of Psychology, Makerere 10–14, 2012, Trieste, Italy. We thank Christopher J. Soto for providing University, Kampala, Uganda; Daniel R. Miramontez, Office of Institu- mean scores. tional Research and Planning, San Diego Community College District; Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Wayne Veronica Benet-Martı´nez, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Chan or Antonio Terracciano, National Institute on Aging, 251 Bayview Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain; Je´roˆme Rossier, Institute of Boulevard, Suite 100, Baltimore, MD 21224. E-mail: wayne.chan@ Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Denis nih.gov or [email protected] PERSONALITY STEREOTYPES OF AGING 3 Age trajectories for personality traits are known to be similar across cultures. To address whether stereotypes of age groups reflect these age-related changes in personality, we asked participants in 26 countries (N ϭ 3,323) to rate typical adolescents, adults, and old persons in their own country. Raters across nations tended to share similar beliefs about different age groups; adolescents were seen as impulsive, rebellious, undisci- plined, preferring excitement and novelty, whereas old people were consistently considered lower on impulsivity, activity, antagonism, and Openness. These consensual age group stereotypes correlated strongly with published age differences on the five major dimensions of personality and most of 30 specific traits, using as criteria of accuracy both self-reports and observer ratings, different survey methodologies, and data from up to 50 nations. However, personal stereotypes were considerably less accurate, and consensual stereotypes tended to exaggerate differences across age groups. Keywords: aging, stereotypes, cross-cultural, five factor model, personality perception Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029712 Laypersons often have intuitive notions of life span develop- elder care and treatment (Harvey & Yoshino, 2006). National ment, influenced by literary, philosophical, and media repre- groups also vary in their perception and treatment of adoles- sentations, as well as their personal observations. They can cents; Americans used more socially negative words to describe readily report their beliefs on the social, emotional, physical, adolescents than did the Chinese (Boduroglu et al., 2006), and and cognitive features of adolescents, adults, and old persons mothers’ reactions to hyperactive boys differ cross-culturally (e.g., Buchanan & Holmbeck, 1998; Gru¨hn, Gilet, Studer, & (Gidwani, Opitz, & Perrin, 2006). Personality stereotypes of Labouvie-Vief, 2011; Löckenhoff et al., 2009), and these ste- different age groups, however, may be more similar across reotypes are thought to contribute to societal attitudes and nations (N. Haslam, Bastian, Fox, & Whelan, 2007; Igier & prejudices toward these groups (Nelson, 2002; Zebrowitz & Mullet, 2003). In particular, Cuddy, Norton, and Fiske (2005) Montepare, 2000). In this article, we quantify the perceived found that stereotypes of the old as high in warmth and low in