Race and Gender-Based Perceptions of Older Septuagenarian Adults

• Published in: Women's health reports (New Rochelle, N.Y.) Vol. 3; no. 1; pp. 944 - 956
• Main Authors: Melton, Forest, Palmer, Kelly, Solola, Sade, Luy, Luis, Herrera-Theut, Kathryn, Zabala, Leanne, Knapp, Shannon M, Yee, Ryan, Yee, Erika, Calhoun, Elizabeth, Hebdon, Megan C Thomas, Pool, Natalie, Sweitzer, Nancy, Breathett, Khadijah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 01-11-2022; Mary Ann Liebert
• Subjects: bias; gender disparities; geriatric; Original; Original Article; racial disparities; racial disparities; gender disparities; geriatric; bias
• ISSN: 2688-4844; 2688-4844
• DOI: 10.1089/whr.2022.0063

Objectives:
Older adults face racism, sexism, and ageism. As the U.S. population ages, it is important to understand how the current population views older adults.
Methods:
Participants recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk provided perceptions of older Black and White models' photographs. Using mixed-effect models, we assessed interactions between race and gender of participants and models.
Results:
Among Participants of Color and White participants (
n
 = 712, 70% non-Hispanic White, 70% women, mean 37.81 years), Black models were perceived as more attractive, less threatening, and sadder than White models, but differences were greater for White participants (race-by-race interaction: attractive
p
 = 0.003, threatening
p
 = 0.009, sad
p
 = 0.016). Each gender perceived their respective gender as more attractive (gender-by-gender interaction
p
 < 0.0001). Male and female participants perceived male models as happier than female models, but differences were greater for male participants (
p
 = 0.026). Irrespective of participant age group, women were perceived as more threatening (
p
 = 0.012). Other perceptions were not significant.
Discussion:
Participants had few biases toward older Black and White models, while gender biases favored men.