Half of TikToks about Baby Boomers contain negative age stereotypes

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-08-03 04:00

International

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Researchers analysed almost 700 TikToks uploaded by young people, tagged #Boomer or #OKBoomer, and found that half of the videos contained negative stereotypes about older adults. Videos criticising older adults' values/ beliefs, or portraying negative encounters with them, were more likely to feature negative age stereotypes (such as those relating to their appearance, competence, or physical functioning). On the other hand, videos portraying older adults as “warm” were 43% less likely to contain negative stereotypes. Authors of the study say these results show the importance of exposing young people to counter-stereotypical depictions of older adults, and fostering intergenerational solidarity.

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Journal/
conference: PLOS One

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: National University of Singapore

Funder: This research was funded with the support of the Social Science Research Council SSHR Fellowship (MOE2018-SSHR-004). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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