Succession, Identity, and Consumption Scale of Prescriptive Ageism (SIC)
(North & Fiske, 2013b ).
Variable
Ageism research typically focuses on default elder stereotypes of perceived incompetence, illness, and irrele-
vance. Though useful, this approach ignores society’s ‘graying’ demographic trends, which are fast ushering in a
more visible, healthy, and influential older age. Also overlooked are the potential (though not inevitable) inter-
generational tensions that might result from an enlarged older population’s use of resources ( North & Fiske,
2012 ).
Similarly, ageism measures tend to focus on descriptive content concerning what older people are allegedly
like. By contrast, a prescriptive approach centers on expectations concerning what older people allegedly should do
(North & Fiske, 2013a ). This theory-based measure thus centers on the idea that age groups are interdependent,
and emphasizes intergenerational tensions over practical and symbolic resources. In this vein, its perspective ech-
oes classic social psychological theories of prejudice emphasizing intergroup resource competition.
Description
The SIC taps three domains of intergenerational resource tension: facilitating active, intergenerational succes-
sion of enviable resources (e.g., retiring from jobs, ceding wealth), limiting passive consumption of shared
resources (e.g., minimizing healthcare dollars, expediting highway traffic), and avoiding symbolic youth identity
resources (e.g., popular music, fashion).
Sample
Four samples (totaling 2010 participants) forged the SIC ( North & Fiske, 2013b ). In its development, the scale
has been administered to participants across the U.S., ranging in age from 16 to 81 years. Also, recent (North &
Fiske, under review) work has collected scale responses from a large, adult sample in India ( n5801).
Preliminary results indicate that Indians score significantly higher on the measure than do Americans, suggesting
a greater level of prescriptive ageism in at least one Eastern culture (see North & Fiske, under review, for a meta-
analysis of East /C0West differences).
Reliability
Internal Consistency
Cronbach alphas coefficients across the four samples ranged from .90 to .91 for the total scale. Alpha coeffi-
cients for the three subscales were: succession (.84 to .85), identity (.83 to .87), and consumption (.75 to .86) across
the four samples ( North & Fiske, 2013b ). Likewise, analyses on Indian responses (North & Fiske, under review)
also resulted in acceptable alphas (.80 to .86).
Validity
Convergent/Concurrent
The SIC scale converges strongly with the FSA ( r5.70), then more moderately with symbolic racism and the
ASI ( r5.32 to .40). The measure also correlates moderately with intergroup-hierarchy-focused SDO ( Pratto et al.,
1994 ),r5.31.
Divergent/Discriminant
The scale does not correlate significantly with intergroup-value-conflict-based RWA ( Altemeyer, 1998 ),r5
.15. The scale also does not correlate with political orientation ( r,.02).
Though SIC does correlate strongly with FSA, an experimental paradigm (in which participants were pre-
sented with prescription-violating elders) found that SIC predicted resentment toward the various targets, even
controlling for FSA. However, the reverse was nonsignificant, suggesting that a prescriptive ageist orientation /C0
not the FSA’s descriptive, affective/cognitive one /C0underlies this bias ( North & Fiske, 2013b ).
Central to the scale’s intergenerational focus, rater age consistently predicts SIC, with younger people scoring
the highest on the total scale ( β5/C0.31) and all three subscales: Succession ( β5/C0.37), Identity ( β5/C0.22), and
Consumption ( β5/C0.17;North & Fiske, 2013b ). Additionally, men score higher than women, as in other preju-
dice measures.710 24. MEASURES OF STEREOTYPING AND PREJUDICE: BAROMETERS OF BIAS
VI. SOCIOCULTURAL INTERACTION AND CONFLICT