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Will to live in older people's medical decisions: immediate and delayed effects of aging stereotypes
Author(s) -
Marques Sibila,
Lima Maria Luísa,
Abrams Dominic,
Swift Hannah
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12231
Subject(s) - psychology , priming (agriculture) , stereotype (uml) , valence (chemistry) , unconscious mind , social psychology , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , germination , botany , physics , quantum mechanics , psychoanalysis , biology
This research explores the duration of age stereotype priming effects on individuals' will to live when faced with a medical terminal illness decision. Study 1 established the content of the stereotype of the older age group in P ortugal. Study 2 tested the effects of priming positive or negative age stereotypes on older and younger individuals' will to live, immediately after priming or after a delay. Results showed significant effects of stereotype valence on older people's will to live. As expected, immediate and delayed will‐to‐live scores were both lower in the negative than in the positive condition. In contrast, among younger people there were no significant effects of stereotype valence. These findings demonstrate the robustness of these types of unconscious influences on older people's fundamental decisions.