Older women: How do they feel while driving and what about the effects of age-and-gender stereotype threat?

Abstract

Abstract Older female drivers could be considered victims of negative stereotypes for two reasons—being a woman and belonging to the older category—but there are no studies specifically in this double context. Two psychosocial questionnaires were created, one assessing the perception of driving abilities in different contexts (PDADC); the second, the perception of the attributes of driving (PAD) with a box for the activation of the stereotype threat. A population of 98 women, aged 65 years or older, comprised the experimental and control groups (quasi-experimental design). This study provides knowledge about the driving feelings of this population who appears, globally, as comfortable at the wheel and “immune” to stereotyping.