LAUSR

During the pandemic, excess deaths (the difference between observed and expected deaths, based on mortality rates from previous years) have far exceeded the number of deaths officially attributed to COVID-19. This is partially due to older persons with COVID-19 avoiding hospitals and dying at home without an official diagnosis. We examined a potential explanation for this avoidance. Specifically, the current study considered for the first time whether resistance to hospitalization can be explained by a psychosocial factor among older persons: stress-inducing negative age stereotypes (disparaging characterizations of older persons as a category) that are assimilated from society. A prevalent-negative-age-stereotype theme is inevitable debilitation. Previous research demonstrated that these stereotypes, which engender a sense of futility, lead to risky health behaviors, delayed recovery from disability, and low will to live among older persons. According to stereotype embodiment theory, and its supporting research, negative age stereotypes have a greater impact on older persons, for whom the stereotypes are self-relevant, compared to younger persons, for whom the stereotypes are self-irrelevant. We expected that, compared to older persons with positive age stereotypes, older persons with negative age stereotypes would be more likely to oppose older individuals going to the hospital when extremely sick with COVID-19. We also conducted two specificity analyses. First, we expected that the age stereotypes of older persons would not be associated with their view of whether younger persons should go to the hospital when extremely sick with COVID-19. Second, we expected that among younger persons, age stereotypes would not be associated with their view of whether older or younger individuals should go to the hospital when extremely sick with COVID-19.