Aging

Framing can help address negative attitudes toward aging. FrameWorks' research offers powerful ways to shift thinking about aging and older people.

People are living longer, healthier lives. But ageism stops us from adapting our society to that reality.

Some ways of countering ageism don’t work the way we expect. “Super senior” stories featuring tremendous late-life accomplishments do more harm than good. Comparing ageism to racism or sexism also backfires. It leads people to think that ageism isn’t as serious as these other forms of discrimination.

Explore the narratives that help us push for age-friendly policy and confront ageism.

Featured Work

Reframing Aging Through Images

Just like words, images play an important role in the implicit messages we send about older people.

Toolkit

Gaining Momentum

The way Americans currently think about aging creates obstacles to productive practices and policies. How can the field of aging help build a better understanding of aging, ageism, and what it...

Report

Public Thinking About Care Work: Encouraging Trends, Critical Challenges

Has the salience of care and the respect for frontline workers seen during the pandemic stayed high or dwindled? What we find is both encouraging and a call to action.

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Report

“You Only Pray that Somebody Would Step In”: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Elder Abuse in America

Elder abuse is a topic that most people would rather not think about, but they carry assumptions nonetheless. This study maps public thinking on elder justice.

Report

Strengthening the Support: How to Talk about Elder Abuse

Experts and advocates working to address elder abuse must similarly evaluate how they talk about and frame their issues to best encourage public engagement.

External article

Shaping Professional Discourse: An Analysis of the Frames Employed by Organizations Working in Aging

FrameWorks staff explore the often unproductive stories that advocacy groups and the media tell about aging Americans. Even positive portrayals, they find, can be unproductive.

Report

Aging, Agency, and Attribution of Responsibility: Shifting Public Discourse about Older Adults

Ageism is alive and well in the media. But how can we make sure it's not in our advocacy communications, too?

Report

Gauging Aging: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Aging in America

This comparison of public and expert thinking on aging identifies challenges in building support for policies that promote the well-being of older Americans.

Report

Talkin’‘Bout My Generation: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Demographic Change in the U.S.

This report compares expert views with those of average Americans, revealing many of the cultural models that dominate thinking about demographic change.