Measuring Children's Age Stereotyping Using a Modified Piagetian Conservation Task

Abstract

We examined five-year-old-children's age stereotyping using a modified Piagetian conservation task. Children were asked if two lines of objects were the “same” after one line had been made longer (transformed). A conversational account posits that children's answers reflect assumptions about the asker's motivation for the question (Schwarz, 1996). We reasoned that when asked by a young adult (puppet Experiment 1, experimenter Experiment 2) children would assume the question is to ascertain if they have noted a perceptual change and would provide answers focused on the change (length). If older adults are assumed to be in decline because of negative age stereotyping, however, children may assume an older adult (puppet, experimenter) is seeking clarification about line equality and would, therefore, give responses focused on the similarity of the lines (number). The expectation that a focus on length or number should differ across puppet/experimenter conditions was supported in both experiments and provides behavioral evidence for children's old age stereotyping.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grant G124130227 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research of Council of Canada.

Notes

Note. Children answered the probe question for the conditions that were not their experimental condition (i.e., answered what Mrs. Maskell would think and what Grandma Mary would think if in the Emily child puppet condition).