Assessing the impact of a brief video intervention to reduce ageism in Mexico

An intervention based on a short video to increase knowledge about ageing and reduce negative age stereotypes. The treatment video (approximately 3 minutes) discusses facts about ageing, provides accurate information on health statistics for older adults in Mexico, and provides positive examples of old adult role models. The design of the video content thus follows the PEACE (Positive Education about Aging and Contact Experiences) Model by Sheri R Levy (2016).

To examine the impact of the video on the outcomes of interest, an online experiment was set up in Prolific, targeted to a Mexican audience (ages 18-59), thus excluding the cohort defined by the law as old adults who are from age 60 in Mexico. When participants in the platform indicated their interest, they were redirected to Qualtrics, which first provided them with an information sheet and a consent form. After agreeing to participate, responses to demographics and the questions that evaluated the outcomes of interest, as well as one attention check and two filler items, were recorded. Afterwards, individuals were uniformly and randomly allocated into the control or treatment group and exposed to the associated videos (placebo or treatment). After this step, the same questions of the first block (excluding the demographic questions and, additionally, a different attention check) were asked, in addition to two questions on their past contact frequency and quality with older adults.

Participants who failed the attention check were excluded to ensure the quality of responses. After, the comparability of both treatment groups was assessed with balance tests involving the baseline characteristics. Once the existence of no imbalances was verified, the impact of the treatment on the outcome of interest was assessed with a difference-in-differences model. Two linear regressions were run with it, using scores of the ageing knowledge (Palmore, 1977) and after the scores for the ageing semantic differential (Rosencranz & McNevin, 1969) as the dependent variables. The results support the hypotheses that the video increased ageing knowledge and decreased the endorsement of negative age stereotypes at a 5% significance level.

Ageing knowledge and age stereotypes are measured before and after watching the video. The control group watched a placebo video, comparable in length and visual design and adapted to the Mexican context.

2024-09-27

2024-09-29

Six questions of Palmore's Facts on Aging Quiz (1977) and three adjectives of the Aging Semantic Differential scale by Rosencranz and McNevin (1969).

Ageing knowledge was assessed through Palmore's Facts on Aging Quiz (1977), and the endorsement of negative age stereotypes was assessed through the Aging Semantic Differential scale by Rosencranz and McNevin (1969).

Online randomised experiment, with pre-test and immediate post-test after the intervention.

Randomisation was applied through Qualtrics “randomisation block,” which uniformly assigns participants to achieve similar-sized groups.

Individuals

No

420

420

151 individuals control, 159 individuals watched treatment video. This results in a final sample of 310 individuals, 110 lower than the initial 420 (which has 210 control, 210 treatment) as individuals failed the attention checks.