Are Older Workers “Opportunity Blockers?”

The results, the researchers write, reveal “a uniquely challenging prejudice.” Ageism turned out to be a difficult prejudice to neutralize because even fervent anti-prejudice advocates found ways to legitimize the bias. In some cases, there’s a sense that older workers have had their chance and it’s time for them to let others escalate in the organization. In other cases, people’s fear of their own aging biases them against older workers. In other words, “I hope I’m not like that when I’m his age.”