We Translate Data into Actionable Insights

The Data Innovation Group consists of top researchers and practitioners from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the Lloyd's Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk, National University of Singapore

Highlights

Does Age Matter? Tweets about Gerontocracy in the United States

Abstract: Discussions on the political scene in the United States have been accompanied by the notion that the country has morphed into a gerontocracy, a system of governance where power is wielded predominantly by older individuals. With rising life expectancy, more as well as older candidates are likely to run for and stay in office. This study analyzes perceptions regarding the older political leadership of the United States. We collected 3,599 tweets containing the word ‘gerontocracy’ which were uploaded between 10 September 2022 and 10 November 2022, a month prior to the midterm elections in the United States, when this topic was likely to have sparked considerable discussion. After applying our exclusion criteria, 1,266 tweets were retained. Our qualitative content analysis was performed inductively and deductively. Seven themes emerged. Most tweets (24%; N=304) highlighted that ‘Gerontocracy is a Problem’ (Theme 1). Theme 2 (21%) focused on how ‘Democracy is a Sham’ (N=270). Theme 3 (19%) positioned ‘Old Age as the Problem and Youth as the Solution’ (N=234). Theme 4 (11%) was about how ‘The Future is at Stake’ (N=145). ‘Health Concerns’ dominated Theme 5 (10%; N=126). Theme 6 looked at ‘Structural Reforms’ (9%, N=115). Theme 7 ‘In Defense of the Gerontocracy’ formed 6% of the dataset (N=72). Attitudes towards older politicians are commonly tied to negative stereotypes surrounding old age. As the population ages, it is paramount that society focuses on potentially more important considerations in the evaluation of the actual caliber of a politician.

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Reframing Aging: Foregrounding Familial and Occupational Roles of Older Adults is Linked to Decreased Ageism Over Two Centuries

Abstract: As older individuals play instrumental roles in supporting their families and contributing to their workplaces, it is essential to understand how society perceives them in relation to these social roles. This study compares age-based (e.g. senior citizen), familial role-based (e.g. grandmother) and occupational role-based framing (e.g. old(er) doctor) of older adults over 210 years in the United States, and explores the sentiments and narratives associated with each type of framing. We created the largest historical corpus of American English – a 600-million-word-dataset comprising over 150,000 texts and spanning 210 years (1810–2019). Top descriptors (N = 135,659) of nouns related to age (e.g. senior citizen), familial roles (e.g. grandmother) and occupational roles (e.g. old(er) doctor) were compiled and rated for valence (negative-positive) on a 5-point scale. Age-based framing was associated with the most negative portrayals of older adults, specifically a 16% decline over 210 years. Foregrounding their familial roles buffered this negativity and resulted in a 4% decline. Occupational roles were associated with the most positive portrayals of older adults, increasing by 2% over the same period. Our findings underscore the need for society to unlearn any false and harmful beliefs surrounding older adults’ abilities and contributions. We propose a strategy to reframe aging by de-emphasizing age and adopting a role-centric approach.

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Videos about older adults on TikTok

Abstract: Besides being one of the fastest growing platforms since entering the social media fray in 2016, TikTok is notably monopolized by teenagers, which makes it a veritable source of information not to be overlooked by gerontologists. Currently, most studies regarding age stereotypes on social media have examined content on Twitter and Facebook. Our study explores how older adults are portrayed on TikTok and the factors associated with these portrayals. We analyzed 673 videos with the hashtags #Boomer and/or #OkBoomer that received over 5.4 billion views and categorized them into nine topics. Five of these topics (e.g., ’Warmth/Coldness’) were extracted from previous studies on age stereotypes. The remaining four topics were unique to our dataset (e.g., ‘Wealth Gap’). The outcome variable was ‘Negative Age Stereotypes’ which was rated on a binary scale. One in two videos about older adults featured negative content. As hypothesized, videos containing negative age stereotypes were more likely to be about the ‘Values and Beliefs of Older Adults’ (7 times), ‘Negative Encounters with Older Adults’ (8 times) or ‘Older Adults Antagonizing the Young’ (13 times). Conversely, videos which portrayed older adults as ‘Warm’ were 43% less likely to contain negative stereotypes. As the phenomenon of an aging population fast unfolds, it is imperative that society relinquishes its tendency to stereotype individuals on the grounds of age. By examining the possible mechanisms driving negative stereotypes of older adults on TikTok, our study provides the basis upon which such stereotypes can be counteracted. In doing so, it paves the way both to improve the well-being of older persons and to foster intergenerational solidarity.

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Innovations for an Aging Society through the Lens of Patent Data

Abstract: An aging population creates fertile ground for devising innovations for older adults. By using patents as a proxy for inventive activity, this study sets the stage for understanding the latest innovations being designed for the older population. Insights will pave the way for a better understanding of inventions that could render society more age friendly on the innovation front. To identify the latest innovations targeted at the older population, we collected all patents (N=326) issued in 2021, specifically those issued between 5th January and 28th December. Upon removing irrelevant data, 120 patents were retained in the dataset. Both inductive and deductive modes of reasoning informed our content analysis of the data. Three themes surfaced. About half (49.2%) of the patents focused on ‘Preventive Health, Safety and Independence’ (Theme 1). 38.3% pertained to ‘Anti-Aging’ (Theme 2) and 12.5% were about the ‘Pathologization of Old Age’ (Theme 3). This is the first study that evaluates the state of innovations for an aging population. While there are inventions aimed at optimizing the well-being of older adults, there are also those designed due to beliefs that see old age as a problem to solve. As the world experiences a demographic shift, it is imperative that collective ingenuity be harnessed to build a society conducive to all facets of the aging experience.

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Communicating Risk Perceptions Through Batik Art

This Arts and Medicine essay describes the creation of a batik art installation titled RiskTalk, which illustrates trends in mentions of public health and non-health risk-related topics in popular written media from 1810 to 2009.

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Portrayal of older adults in over 3,000 films around the world

Abstract: Presently, most film analyses related to older adults are peculiar to American cinema. However, film industries outside the United States are influential in their own right. As ageism is a pan-cultural phenomenon, it is important to explore filmic representations of older persons globally. This study is the first to offer a portrait of how filmic portrayals of older persons differ across regions. We leveraged a 200-million-word movie corpus comprising over 25,000 scripts from 88 countries in 11 regions. The movies span a period of nearly 90 years, from 1930 to 2018. We identified synonyms of “older adult(s)” and compiled the top descriptors that co-occurred most frequently with them. Seventeen thousand five hundred and eight descriptors were generated from 3384 movies. Using these descriptors, we calculated the valence of filmic portrayals of older adults on a scale of 1 (most negative) to 5 (most positive) in each region. Positive representations of older adults in movies were lacking in all 11 regions. Four regions fell into the neutral zone and the remaining seven in the negative zone. Representations of older persons were the least negative in East Asia and South Asia, and most negative in Southeast Asia as well as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Our topic modeling revealed that older adults were portrayed as venerable in both South and East Asia. Meanwhile, older people were associated with death in MENA. The idea that society is ill-equipped to handle an aging population was hinted at in Southeast Asia. As societies worldwide navigate a major demographic turning point, it is vital that filmmakers rethink portrayals of old age. In articulating the filmic narratives surrounding old age in different regions, our study lays the foundation to combat ageism on the big screen.
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Impact of Old Age on an Occupation's Image Over 210 Years: An Age Premium for Doctors, Lawyers, and Soldiers

Abstract: As older adults continue to contribute to the labor force, it is critical that perceptions of them reflect these contributions. We explore whether portraying older adults based on their occupational roles instead of their age is linked to more positive sentiments and test the possibility of an age premium. We created the largest historical corpus of American English-a 600-million-word dataset with over 150,000 texts-spanning 210 years (1810-2019). Top descriptors (N = 675,213) of nouns related to age, occupation, and age × occupation over 21 decades were compiled and rated for valence (negative-positive) on a 5-point scale. Occupational role-based framing was associated with more positive portrayals than age-based framing. Positive portrayals of older lawyers increased by 22.6% over 210 years. Older doctors (-1.4%) and older soldiers (-10.7%) experienced a decline in positive portrayals, though sentiments toward older doctors, lawyers, and soldiers remained more positive than those toward older adults.
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​Read more here.

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