This meta-analysis represents the first wide-scale synthesis of
studies that compare cross-cultural attitudes toward older adults.
Despite lay and researcher beliefs that Eastern cultures hold their
aged in greater esteem than do Western cultures, the current
analysis found evidence for a reverse overall pattern—albeit one
with high heterogeneity, suggesting significant moderators, and a
story warranting more qualification than broad, East-versus-West
categories. Indeed, this medium-sized overall effect was moder-
ated by geographic region, with East Asians exhibiting the greatest
negativity within the East, and Europeans being the most negative
within the West. Across regions, multiple-moderator meta-
regression analyses suggested that negative views of the aged are
driven by recent, rapid demographic changes in population aging.
Moreover, cultural individualism appears to predict positive older
adult evaluations—raising new, counterintuitive hypotheses about
the value types that benefit older adults in postmodernized soci-
eties. Future empirical studies should investigate these and other
potential mechanisms in a more focused manner. Nevertheless, the
current findings underscore the inadequacy of broad, geographic
generalizations in understanding contemporary attitudes toward
older adults, emphasize the importance of recent demographic
trends on perceptions of the aged, and suggest that cultural tradi-
tions emphasizing elder reverence may not hold up in the modern,
aging world.