The influence of stimulus age and sex on person perception.

College males and females evaluated 25-, 50-, and 75-year-old males and females using a semantic differential. Evaluations became more negative with increasing age of stimulus concept. Males were perceived as more effective and autonomous than females until age 75. Females were perceived as more personally acceptable at all ages. The aging process was perceived as similar for males and females between 25 and 50 but more detrimental to males than to females between 50 and 75. Female Ss evaluated male and female stimulus concepts similarly while male Ss evaluated male stimuli more positively than female stimuli.