This document outlines a study that aims to compare age discrimination against older workers in the U.S. and Turkey based on their cultural differences. It hypothesizes that age discrimination will be highest in collectivistic-tight cultures like Turkey, and lowest in individualistic-loose cultures like the U.S. The study will conduct interviews with 20 older workers in each country to qualitatively examine stereotypes, advantages, and disadvantages they face regarding career and retirement. The collected data will then be analyzed for differences between the two cultures.

1. Individualism-Collectivism x Tightness-Looseness
Individualistic Collectivistic
Loose Least Age Some Age
Discrimination Discrimination
Tight Some Age Most Age
Discrimination Discrimination
 Cultural Anchors of Ageism framework might serve as
moderating and mediating mechanisms in the relations
between age, culture, and work outcomes.
 The CAA framework has the potential to move researchers
toward systematic ageism research across cultures.
 May also facilitate more research in other parts of the
world rather than just North America, Australia, and
Western Europe.
 Study ageism and its effects on more dissimilar cultures
 Better explain large extraneous variance in workplace age
discrimination
The Cultural Anchors of Ageism: Interviews With Older
Workers in the U.S. and Turkey
Ferry Fleurimond, Barbara A. Fritzsche, & Justin Marcus
Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida
Ageism
 Older workers consistently are evaluated negatively
relative to younger workers (Bal, Reiss, Rudolph, & Baltes,
2011).
 Older workers are seen as less motivated, less healthy, less
able to learn and adapt, more resilient to change, more
prone to work-family imbalance (Ng & Feldman, 2012).
 There is no systematic research regarding how culture can
influence age discrimination against older workers and
work outcomes (Posthuma & Campion, 2009).
 Most ageism research occurs in North America and
Western Europe/Australia.
 People 60 years old or above is estimated to be
2,000,000,000 by mid-century (World Health Organization,
2014).
Societal Culture
 Tight societies are categorized as having strict normative
standards of behavior, and sanction deviances from group
norms (Uz, 2015).
 The two-dimensional quadrants are in-group
individualism-collectivism and tightness-looseness.
 The U.S. falls in the individualistic-loose while Turkey is in
the collectivistic-tight category.
Purposes of the study
 Identify differences between older workers in the U.S. and
Turkey regarding stereotypes and perceived discrimination.
 Obtain qualitative data in order to advance quantitative
research of cultural ageism.
Assumption 1: Age discrimination is expected to be highest in collectivistic-tight societies
(Turkey for example) since group norms are emphasized, and deviant behaviors are
sanctioned.
Assumption 2: Age discrimination can be expected to be lowest in individualistic-loose
societies (The U.S. for example) because individual differences are valued and deviant
behaviors are more tolerated.
Assumption 3: Expect both societal cultures to exhibit some level of age discrimination
because it’s possible that ageism against older adults may have evolutionary roots
(Marcus & Sabuncu, in press).
Sample
 The study requires 20 participants; may recruit more if necessary
 All participants will be at least 40 years old; white-collar employees
Procedures
 Face-to-face interviews to collect data on stereotypes, advantages, and disadvantages
older workers face concerning career and retirement
 Interviews will be taped/recorded and transcribed
 Collected data will be examined for differences
Analyses
 Data coding and categorizing, data display/summaries, and conclusion/comparison
Introduction
Expected Discussion
How can culture impact ageism? Expected Results
Method