Students’ attitudes toward older people: A cross-cultural comparison

There is a popular belief that attitudes toward older people are predominantly negative in Western cultures and positive in Eastern cultures. In the light of social and cultural changes in these cultures, it is timely to investigate whether this belief still holds true. The study also explores an often-ignored feature of cultural differences in these attitudes, namely, that attitudes toward older people are mixed phenomena in both cultures. The study uses a cross-group research design. Sixty-five undergraduates (31 Western and 35 Eastern) completed the Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA) administered on computers. It found that attitudes toward older people were generally positive in both cultures and did not support the first hypothesis that attitudes toward older people would be predominantly negative in Western cultures and positive in Eastern cultures. However, as predicted, attitudes toward older people were mixed in both cultures. This study highlights the similarity in attitudes toward older people across cultures and argues that future studies need to be encouraged to pay more attention to positive attitudes.