False Consciousness of Kind

Abstract

This article examines the misconceptions of the elderly regarding the severity of problems experienced by most of the aged. Using data taken from the National Council on the Aging's 1974 national survey, the analysis shows (1) that the elderly greatly overestimate the seriousness of problems encountered by most elderly individuals; (2) that the more serious a problem is personally for respondents, the more likely they are to attribute it falsely to the majority of other elderly; and (3) that many of the aged without very serious problems mistakenly perceive themselves as different from most of the other aged. The data also show that these findings hold regardless of the elderly respondents' positions in the social structure. These patterns of pluralistic ignorance constitute a false consciousness of kind that is strikingly similar to that reported in studies of the misperceptions of racial values.

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