Understanding attitudes to age is essential if we are to develop appropriate strategies for an ageing population.

The limited evidence from prior surveys suggests that people view the start of old age as happening later as they get older, and that age discrimination may beperceived as prevalent but is not experienced widely. The evidence in the present
report provides a different and more comprehensive picture of attitudes to age in Britain over a five year period. This evidence comes from five national surveys (with a total of over 6,000 respondents) sponsored by Age Concern England (ACE) in 2004, 2006 and 2008, and by the Women and Equality Unit in 2005. These involved using in-home (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI)) interviews with representative samples of between 1,000 and 2,000 people aged 15 years and over (except 2008, which sampled 500 people).

The report examines how people’s age and other demographic characteristics relate to seven issues:
• the importance of age to people’s self-concept, and what determines how they judge others as ‘young’ or ‘old’;
• beliefs that age prejudice and discrimination are a problem;
• personal experience of age discrimination;
• stereotypes that exist about older and younger people, and their implications;
• beliefs that the ageing population endangers employment prospects, access to services and resources, or endangers the culture and way of life of all people;
• the expression of age prejudice;
• beliefs that younger and older people share a single community and intergenerational divide.

Age categorisation and identification
By their mid-30s most respondents stopped describing themselves as young. By their mid-70s most started describing themselves as old. The youngest and oldest respondents identified most strongly with their age groups whereas those in their
50s and early 60s identified least strongly.

On average, respondents judged that ‘youth’ generally ends at 45 years of age. However, 18 per cent said youth ends by the age of 30 and 11 per cent said it continues beyond the age of 50. On average, respondents judged that ‘old age’ starts at 63 years of age, but 11 per cent said it starts before the age of 50 while 34 per cent said that old age starts after the age of 70.

Older respondents and women considered that youth continues longer and old age starts later than did younger respondents and men, respectively. This huge diversity in perceptions of age boundaries means that there is substantial scope for isunderstanding and mistaken assumptions about age in the way people are judged and treat one another.

Perceptions of age prejudice
Media images of older people were more often considered to be positive than negative. However, 94 per cent of respondents believed that people over 70 experience age prejudice and 51 one per cent of respondents agreed that people over 50 are ‘written off as old’. Almost half (48 per cent) of respondents viewed age discrimination as a serious issue. Women, respondents from a white ethnic background, and those working full-time, viewed age prejudice and discrimination against people over 70 to be more prevalent and serious than did men, respondents from non-white ethnic backgrounds and respondents who had retired.

Experiences of discrimination
The present evidence reveals a more extreme picture than that emerging from earlier surveys in the Eurobarometer (EB) series. Over a quarter (26 per cent) of respondents had experienced ageism. Among respondents of all ages, ageism was experienced more commonly than any other form of prejudice. Younger respondents reported experiencing more discrimination of all types, including ageism. Age discrimination was more likely to be experienced by respondents who were retired or not working, and by respondents who were not married/ not living as married. The prevalence of gender and ethnic discrimination showed
slight decline between 2004 and 2008 whereas experiences of age discrimination appeared to have increased in 2008.

Age stereotypes
Based on a well established theory of social stereotypes, the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), the surveys examined key features of stereotypes that are applied to people aged under 30 and over 70. Respondents from white ethnic backgrounds
and from higher social classes perceived that these stereotypes were held more strongly. Older people were stereotyped as friendlier, more admirable and more moral than younger people; higher on the SCM’s ‘warmth’ dimension. Younger
people were viewed as more capable (high on the ‘competence’ dimension).

Younger respondents were less likely to think people aged over 70 are viewed as capable. Younger people were viewed as more likely to be envied. By implication they are likely to be subjected to hostile and resentful prejudice. Older people
were viewed as more likely to be pitied. By implication they are more likely to be subjected to patronizing prejudice. These findings show that, prejudices against younger and older people are likely to differ in degree, tone and application.

Ageing as a perceived threat
Negative attitudes toward social groups are often associated with the perception that these groups may pose various types of threat. Knowing what type of threat a group poses provides insight into why it might be subjected to particular forms ofprejudice or discrimination. The surveys examined and compared three potential types of threat that might be posed by an ageing population, and specifically by the needs, demands or actions of people over the age of 70.

Economic threat was measured by asking respondents whether people over 70 years of age take out more from the economy than they put in or whether they put in more than they take out. Material threat was measured by asking how those aged 70 or over affect the safety, security, or health of other people in Britain. Symbolic threat was studied by asking respondents to indicate how people over 70 affect the customs, traditions or general way of life of other people in Britain. People over 70 were perceived as posing greater economic threat than either material or symbolic threat. Nearly a quarter of respondents believed that people over 70 take out more from the economy than they put in. Younger respondents perceived people over 70 as posing more threat economically, materially and symbolically than did older respondents.

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