The fight against prejudice in older adults: perspective taking effectiveness

Publication Year
2014

Type

Journal Article
Abstract

Inhibition of prejudice appears to be more problematic for older adults, hence the need to develop programs to reduce intergroup bias at later stages in life. Perspective taking was analyzed in this study, as one of various cognitive strategies that have been shown to reduce such bias. Data on a sample of 63 Spanish participants with a mean age of 64.1 years was gathered after an intervention based on mental imagery, aimed at reducing explicit prejudice. A wide array of variables was measured (personality traits, values, empathy, and attribution) which may moderate effectiveness in perspective taking. Despite no main effect was found, effects due to interaction of perspective taking found in OLS regression analysis revealed that perspective taking based intervention was effective for some older adults, particularly those who had low scores on agreeableness, empathy, and universalism, and high scores on conformity. The conclusions suggest that perspective taking might be successfully applied to some profles of older people albeit it is not as strong and transferable strategy as it used to be thought. © 2011, Konrad Lorenz University Foundation.

Journal
Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología
Volume
46
Pages
137–147
Type of Article
Journal Article
Full text

Open access via the link provided.

Country
Method