Age-Related Humor as an Indicator of Attitudes and Perceptions

Abstract

The relationship between attitudes toward and perceptions of old people and responses to age-related humorous birthday card messages was examined. Young and old respondents gave humor ratings for 26 ageist and 26 general cards, and completed Rosencranz and McNevin's (1969) Aging Semantic Differential (ASD). Attitudes toward and perceptions of the elderly were reliably more favorable in the old respondent group, but young and old respondents did not differ in their humor ratings. Correlations between humor ratings and ratings on Rosencranz and McNevin's three dimensions of the ASD were nonreliable. The data support Sheppard's (1981) conclusion that the appreciation of humor about old people and attitudes toward them are not related.