26 February 2025, 15:13

By Katy Ronkin

The yellow-purple bruise on Trump’s hand has raised questions about the president’s health, his age and concern and worry about his competence.

These three perceptions are strongly associated in our minds, so when one is triggered, the others closely follow.

You can’t read a news article or social media posts about Trump’s bruised hand and not be reminded of his age.

The President’s age provides context to evaluate his health and competence, but we should be aware that the context provided by ‘age’ can be prone to bias and our own ageist attitudes.

This is because of widely held age-stereotypes, which are over-generalised beliefs about people based on age. Research has shown that beliefs about health and competence are central to the stereotypical beliefs we hold about younger, middle-aged and older people, and these underpin........

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