Come(dies) of Ageism: Kingsley Amis’s Barmy, Old Devils

In defence of ageism.

In defence of ageism.

Health care should be preferentially allocated to younger patients. This is just and is seen as just. Age is an objective factor in rationing decisions. The arguments against 'ageism' are answered. The effects of age on current methods of rationing are illustrated, and the practical applications of an age-related criterion are discussed. Ageist policies are in current use and open discussion of...

The Five Neglects: Risks Gone Amiss

The economist's model of rational decision making in situations of risk is composed of five elements: (1) consideration of probability, (2) valuation of potential benefits and losses, (3) accurate use of (sub­ jective) probability and statistics, (4) delineation and evaluation of all available alternatives, and (5) incorporation of all benefits and costs accruing to the decision maker. Often, h...

We will be different! Ageism and the temporal construction of old age.

Ageism has been described as different from other forms of discrimination and paradoxical in the sense that "nonold" people discriminate against their "future selves." The argument of this article is that nonold people may uphold ideas about older people as "the other" by constructing their own future selves as "essentially different" from that of older people of the present. Using examples fro...

Virtually old: Embodied perspective taking and the reduction of ageism under threat

Intergroup threat harms attitudes toward the outgroup, leading to greater levels of prejudice and outgroup derogation (Rothgerber, 1997). Two experiments were conducted to examine (1) if perspective taking mitigates the negative influence of threat on explicit and implicit intergenerational attitudes and, if so, (2) whether this buffering effect would be stronger for participants who embodied a...