• Psychol Aging. 2018 Aug 1; 33 (5): vi.

AbstractReports an error in "A review and meta-analysis of age-based stereotype threat: Negative stereotypes, not facts, do the damage" by Ruth A. Lamont, Hannah J. Swift and Dominic Abrams (Psychology and Aging, 2015[Mar], Vol 30[1], 180-193). In the article, some of the effect sizes in the meta-analysis were mistakenly calculated based on standard error (SE), rather than standard deviation (SD). The authors identified this problem for three of the 32 studies in the analysis. In addition, SE was incorrectly used in one of the original publications (Desrichard & Kopetz, 2005), and amendments have been made based on this also. A table of the recalculated data is provided in the erratum. The recalculations have minimal impact on the meta-analysis conclusions, but effect sizes calculated throughout the article needed to be updated. The meta-analysis still revealed a small-to-medium effect of age-based stereotype threat (ABST; d= .32). Two conclusions have changed from the original moderator analyses. Journal region did not significantly moderate effect sizes of stereotype-based studies conducted within Europe (Qbetween (1) 2.17, p .14). Thus, reassuringly, it cannot be concluded that publication region predicts effect size magnitude or that there are different expectations for effect sizes based on the journal region. Because this issue was slightly peripheral to the central questions for the analysis, the central conclusions of the article remain unaffected. Further, the meta-analysis now supports the authors' initial hypothesis that gender would moderate ABST effects ( β=.36, p< .05), whereby women may experience greater ABST effects. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2015-02669-001.) Stereotype threat effects arise when an individual feels at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about their group and consequently underperforms on stereotype relevant tasks (Steele, 2010). Among older people, underperformance across cognitive and physical tasks is hypothesized to result from age-based stereotype threat (ABST) because of negative age-stereotypes regarding older adults' competence. The present review and meta-analyses examine 22 published and 10 unpublished articles, including 82 effect sizes (N = 3882) investigating ABST on older people's (Mage = 69.5) performance. The analysis revealed a significant small-to-medium effect of ABST (d = .28) and important moderators of the effect size. Specifically, older adults are more vulnerable to ABST when (a) stereotype-based rather than fact-based manipulations are used (d = .52); (b) when performance is tested using cognitive measures (d = .36); and (c) occurs reliably when the dependent variable is measured proximally to the manipulation. The review raises important theoretical and methodological issues, and areas for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record(c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

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