The Applied Implications of Age-Based Stereotype Threat for Older Adults

AUTHORS: SARAH J. BARBER

**This article was accompanied by the J. Don Read Early Career Award.**

Stereotype threat occurs when people feel concerned about the possibility of confirming, or being negatively judged by, a negative stereotype. This review highlights the applied implications of this phenomenon for older adults. In clinical settings, feelings of age-based stereotype threat can increase older adults’ subjective cognitive complaints and impair their performance on mental status examinations. Stereotype threat can also impair older adults’ physical strength and performance, and their driving performance. This review provides evidence that stereotype threat can affect older adults’ performance in a variety of applied settings, and this can contribute to age differences in performance.

Searching for the Backfire Effect: Measurement and Design Considerations

AUTHORS: Briony Swire-Thompson, Joseph DeGutis & David Lazer

One of the most concerning notions for science communicators, fact-checkers, and advocates of truth, is the backfire effect; this is when a correction leads to an individual increasing their belief in the very misconception the correction is aiming to rectify. In this review, we summarize the current state of the literature on two backfire effects: the worldview backfire effect and the familiarity backfire effect. We subsequently examine barriers to measuring the backfire phenomenon, discuss approaches to improving measurement and design, and conclude with recommendations for fact-checkers. We suggest that backfire effects are not a robust empirical phenomenon, and more reliable measures, powerful designs, and stronger links between experimental design and theory could greatly help move the field ahead.

It Took Me by Surprise: Examining the Retroactive Enhancement Effect for Memory of Naturally Unfolding Events

AUTHORS: Adam R. Congleton & Dorthe Berntsen

In two experiments, we examined how experiencing a surprising moment during an event may affect people’s memory for what happened up until that point in time. Participants who saw a film containing an unexpected detail displayed superior accuracy for preceding event details compared to those who watched a film without such a detail. This retroactive enhancement effect occurred for visual and auditory details, and when participants’ memory was tested immediately or after a two-day delay. The effect was only observed, however, when the unexpected detail was relevant to the story of the event. These findings support the notion that experiencing something surprising during events in our daily lives can have a retroactive effect upon memory for what came before, including improving our memory for details we may not have otherwise remembered.

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