A shield against ageism: Self-affirmation mitigates the negative effects of workplace age discrimination on well-being and performance

Abstract

Although an increasingly age-diverse workforce offers many potential advantages for organizations, it also presents unique challenges. Namely, bringing together people of different ages produces an environment ripe for age-based discrimination. In this study, we integrate the transactional model of stress with self-affirmation theory to propose the effectiveness of a brief personal values affirmation for shaping the effect of age discrimination on stress appraisals. In turn, we expect this intervention to weaken the indirect effects of age discrimination on somatic complaints, emotional exhaustion, and task performance. We test our model using four multi-wave field experiments among full-time employees (total N = 629). We find robust support for the utility of the intervention for mitigating the effects of age discrimination on outcomes via threat appraisal. Our findings have implications for managing experiences of ageism in organizations and complement existing techniques to reduce the adverse effects of this pernicious form of mistreatment.