What are the three types of ageism?
Institutional ageism is direct discrimination in an institution’s policies and actions, which unfairly gives people of different ages different opportunities. For instance, employers prefer to hire younger people because they think older people are slow and work less, and of course, their pension is more.
Interpersonal ageism happens when people interact with each other in society which causes people to have different levels of respect for other people with the same actions but different age groups. There’s also the problem of assuming things about people based on their age, such as automatically talking louder and slower in the presence of older people.
Internalized ageism is the most neglected kind of ageism. When a person internalizes ageist beliefs and applies them to themselves, it has two general effects on their life. One is that they define particular limits for themselves due to their age group. For example, many older people with internalized ageism think they shouldn’t party because they are older. The other effect is that they give themselves limited permissions and think some actions are acceptable. For example, many seniors feel that just because they have a few more white strands, they have the right to criticize all aspects of a younger person. The two effects of internalized ageism are each other’s cause and effect!