Introduction to the Section: Researching Ageism

Research is critical to assess the prevalence, origins, and consequences of ageism as well as the potential effectiveness of various interventions to fight ageism. A major challenge associated with the assessment of ageism is the fact that being seen as ageist is generally considered to be negative. Most people do not wish to be seen as ageist (Cherry et al. 2015) and so will respond to questions about ageism with caution. Moreover, ageism is highly prevalent and often unnoticed, because it is so ingrained in our lives (Perdue and Gurtman 1990). This is why implicit measures of ageism are recommended to supplement explicit measures (Shiovitz-Ezra et al. 2016).