Abstract: Ageism attitudes are prevalent all over the world. Children as young as two or three years old have been found to have negative stereotypes of ageing. Family, social influences, media sources, and literature are the most primary agents in providing children with negative information and ideas about older adults. And lacks of intergenerational contact and ageing information are identified as primary reasons for people developing ageism. Ageism impacts individual behavior, acceptance of personal ageing, mental health, living style, and career choice. Discussing ageing, interacting with older adults directly, and acquiring knowledge about ageing are ways to change negative stereotypes of ageing. Quality but not quantity of intergenerational contact is more influential compared of the quantity of intergenerational contact. Researches on ageism have some limitations, such as more cross-sectional researches and less longitudinal researches, more researches on characters and intervenes and less on mechanism, diverse methods and instruments result in inconsistent findings, in directly subjective measures, participants tend to express more positive attitude, and indirect measures of ageism indicate more strongly negative views. The researches on Chinese ageism should be conducted thoroughly.

Key words: ageing, attitudes toward ageing, ageism, stereotypes