Perceptions of older and younger adults who wear hearing aids.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate older and younger adults' perceptions of older and younger adults who wear hearing aids.

Design: Participants completed two Implicit Association Tests: One with images of older adults (OA-IAT) and one with images of younger adults (YA-IAT), either wearing or not wearing hearing aids. Participants also rated age, attractiveness, and intelligence of younger and older adults pictured with or without a hearing aid.

Study sample: Thirty older adults (M age = 70 years, SD = 4.38) and 30 younger adults (M age = 23 years, SD = 3.01) who reported not having hearing aids or a diagnosed hearing impairment.

Results: For both IATs, older and younger participants responded faster and more accurately when images of individuals wearing hearing aids were paired with negative words in comparison to positive words. Photo ratings did not vary in relation to the presence or absence of hearing aids for either age group.

Conclusion: Although the photo rating tasks indicate neutral explicit attitudes towards individuals who wear hearing aids, our interpretation of the IAT results indicates that younger and older adults may hold negative implicit attitudes towards both older and younger hearing aid users.