Today’s young adults are ascribed a mixed stereotype content, subject to harsher social judgments than both older age groups & recollections of former generations at the same age, & victim of discriminatory behaviors

Francioli, S. P., & North, M. S. (2021). Youngism: The content, causes, and consequences of prejudices toward younger adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Aug 2021. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001064

Abstract: Research on ageism has focused largely on perceptions of and biases targeting older adults, implicitly assuming that age-based stigma increases throughout the life span and that young adults benefit from favorable views relative to their older counterparts. In a series of eight studies (N = 2,323), we provide evidence to the contrary. We theorize that, in sharp contrast with ageism toward older adults, which revolves around fear and discomfort with the target’s later life stage, youngism (i.e., ageism toward young adults) is primarily generationally focused, aiming at contemporaneous generations of young adults rather than young adults in general. Consistent with this theorizing, we find that today’s young adults are ascribed a mixed stereotype content (Study 1a–1c), subject to harsher social judgments than both older age groups (Study 2) and recollections of former generations at the same age (Study 3a and 3b), and victim of discriminatory behaviors (Study 4 and 5). By comprehensively documenting cognitive, emotional, and behavioral evidence of youngism, the present work challenges the idea that ageism only reflects a plight of later-life aging. Instead, we show not only that ageism can target other age groups but also that the nature and content of ageism vary across the life span.