brings kindness and wisdom , but are more commonly negative . These equate older age with declining physical and cognitive prowess ( especially our memory ), illness , and dependency . Peppered with a grain of truth , age stereotypes are overgeneralizations that tend not to characterize any individual or the complex reality of aging . Aging is highly individual , influenced by biology , and , in good part , by our circumstances , choices , and lifestyles . Therefore , and contrary to the all-encompassing stereotypes , some people will indeed grow in wisdom , but others never will . Some seniors will experience independence-zapping illness and need institutional care , but over ninety per cent of seniors 65 and older live independently in their own homes . Because stereotyping drowns out individuality , substituting a hypothetical “ old person ,” it is no wonder that in a poll of Canadian seniors , forty-one per cent reported being ignored or treated as if invisible , thirtyeight per cent believed people assumed they have nothing to contribute , and twenty-seven per cent believed people assumed they were incompetent . Theories of ageism focus on society ’ s value of youth ; fear of mortality , of which older people are a reminder ; and age segregation that fuels stereotyping by decreasing opportunities to witness diversity amongst older people . Ageism also starts early . Children , as young as age three in my own research , modify their behaviour with older people in alignment with common age stereotypes . While it is tempting to think the grass is greener elsewhere , ageism is a global issue . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) recently reported that one in two people are ageist against older people . The scope of ageism is broad . Plenty of research has demonstrated that ageism is operative in the workplace ( such as discriminatory selection practices ) and health care ( such as age cut-offs for treatment and resource allocation ). The
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