Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA.
Alabama Research Institute on Aging, Alabama Life Research Institute, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA.
Gerontologist. 2024 May 1;64(5). doi: 10.1093/geront/gnad115.
Ageism is oftentimes sugarcoated within humor. Paper birthday cards are 1 delivery approach in which ageist messages are perpetuated and reinforced through humor.
A convenience sample of birthday cards (k = 227), all indicating a decade of age, were acquired from 7 national retail stores in Colorado Springs, CO. The decades sampled ranged from 21 to 100. With a predeveloped codebook, 3 raters coded the decade birthday cards on various variables, including age group, ageist tone, and humor.
Birthday cards intended for age 30-60 contained significantly more ageist messages compared to cards intended for age 21 and age 70-100, which did not show a significant difference from each other. Additionally, birthday cards with humor showed more ageist messages than cards without humor. Characteristics of decade birthday cards were also explored.
Consumers need to learn to evaluate these ageist messages in birthday cards to reduce the perpetuation of damaging stereotypes.
年龄歧视时常以幽默的形式出现。纸质生日贺卡是一种传递方式，通过幽默，年龄歧视信息得以延续和强化。
从科罗拉多斯普林斯的 7 家全国性零售店收集了方便样本的生日贺卡（k=227），所有贺卡都标有年龄的十年跨度。抽样的年代范围从 21 岁到 100 岁。使用预先制定的编码手册，3 名评分人根据各种变量对十年生日贺卡进行编码，包括年龄组、年龄歧视语气和幽默。
与针对 21 岁和 70-100 岁年龄段的贺卡相比，针对 30-60 岁年龄段的生日贺卡包含了更多的年龄歧视信息，而后者之间没有显著差异。此外，有幽默元素的生日贺卡比没有幽默元素的贺卡包含了更多的年龄歧视信息。还探讨了十年生日贺卡的特点。
消费者需要学会评估生日贺卡中的这些年龄歧视信息，以减少破坏性刻板印象的延续。
