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Aging Narratives Over 210 Years (1810–2019)
[Images of old age in America 1790–1970—after a second look]

Author

Listed:
  • Reuben Ng
  • Ting Yu Joanne Chow
  • Deborah Carr

Abstract

ObjectivesThe World Health Organization launched a recent global campaign to combat ageism, citing its ubiquity and insidious threat to health. The historical context that promoted this pernicious threat is understudied, and such studies lay the critical foundation for designing societal-level campaigns to combat it. We analyzed the trend and content of aging narratives over 210 years across multiple genres—newspaper, magazines, fiction, nonfiction books—and modeled the predictors of the observed trend.MethodA 600-million-word dataset was created from the Corpus of Historical American English and the Corpus of Contemporary American English to form the largest structured historical corpus with over 150,000 texts from multiple genres. Computational linguistics and statistical techniques were applied to study the trend, content, and predictors of aging narratives.ResultsAging narratives have become more negative, in a linear fashion (p = .003), over 210 years. There are distinct shifts: From uplifting narratives of heroism and kinship in the 1800s to darker tones of illness, death, and burden in the 1900s across newspapers, magazines, and nonfiction books. Fiction defied this trend by portraying older adults positively through romantic courtship and war heroism. Significant predictors of ageism over 210 years are the medicalization of aging, loss of status, warmth, competence, and social ostracism.DiscussionThough it is unrealistic to reverse the course of ageism, its declining trajectory can be ameliorated. Our unprecedented study lay the groundwork for a societal-level campaign to tackle ageism. The need to act is more pressing given the Covid-19 pandemic where older adults are constantly portrayed as vulnerable.

Suggested Citation

  • Reuben Ng & Ting Yu Joanne Chow & Deborah Carr, 2021. "Aging Narratives Over 210 Years (1810–2019) [Images of old age in America 1790–1970—after a second look]," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(9), pages 1799-1807.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:76:y:2021:i:9:p:1799-1807.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbaa222
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Reuben Ng & Heather G. Allore & Becca R. Levy, 2020. "Self-Acceptance and Interdependence Promote Longevity: Evidence From a 20-year Prospective Cohort Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-15, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Amber X. Chen & Shaojing Sun & Hongbo Yu, 2024. "Moral attitudes towards effort and efficiency: a comparison between American and Chinese history," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.

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