Stereotyping against your will: The role of inhibitory ability in stereotyping and prejudice among the elderly

An experiment examined the hypothesis that elderly people rely on stereotyp es more, and are more prejudiced, than younger people because of deficits i n the ability to inhibit information. Consistent with predictions, elderly people relied on stereotypes even when instructed not to, whereas young peo ple did not. Elderly people also were more prejudiced than young people, an d these differences in stereotyping and prejudice were mediated by age diff erences in inhibitory ability. Because elderly people reported a stronger d esire than young people to control their prejudiced reactions, these result s suggest that inhibitory failure can cause people to become more prejudice d than they want to be.