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of certain age groups. Hummert’s research using the multiple stereotypes perspective has
identified several factors that influence the activation within an individual of positive or
negative stereotypes with regard to an older adult target: biological sex, perceived age,
acquaintance level, and context. These factors, while offering insight into innate factors
that affect our perceptual schemas, do not assess the impact of the individual’s
communicative behaviors on stereotype activation. While numerous studies have
examined the effects of patronizing speech on communication satisfaction (Coupland &
Coupland, 1995; Giles, Fox, Harwood & Williams, 1994; Harwood, 2000; Hummert,
1994; Ryan, Kwong See, Meneer & Trovato, 1992; Williams & Giles, 1996), the
relationship between the situational factors that facilitate the activation of either positive
or negative stereotypes and the type of communicative message, other than patronizing
speech, has not been studied. This study will attempt to address this oversight.
The current study examines the effect of a verbally aggressive message on
stereotype activation. Verbal aggressiveness is an important message type because of the
frequent media portrayal of older adults as eccentric, irritable, nagging, grouchy, verbose,
and communicatively inept (Braithewaite, 1986; Robinson & Skill, 1995; Harwood &
Anderson, 2002). While communication scholars have studied verbal aggressiveness
extensively, this will be the first study to examine its effect on perceptual schemas
specific to the cohort of older adults. The current study attempts to shed some light on
the contention that the behaviors of older adults, in this case aggressive communicative
behaviors, have far-reaching consequences, and in particular, impacts the ensuing
communicative intergenerational encounter either positively or negatively.
Convention