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Aviation Psychology
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The Effect of Pilot Age

on Perceptions of Pilot
Performance and Attitudes
Toward the Implementation
of Ergonomic Redesign
Interventions for Older Pilots
Mary E. Ziegler Poppen & Catherine S. Daus
Published online: 13 Nov 2009.

To cite this article: Mary E. Ziegler Poppen & Catherine S. Daus (2000) The
Effect of Pilot Age on Perceptions of Pilot Performance and Attitudes Toward
the Implementation of Ergonomic Redesign Interventions for Older Pilots,
The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 10:1, 13-34, DOI: 10.1207/
S15327108IJAP1001_2
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327108IJAP1001_2

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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AVIATION PSYCHOLOGY, 10(1), 1334

Copyright 2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

The Effect of Pilot Age on Perceptions of

Pilot Performance and Attitudes Toward
the Implementation of Ergonomic
Redesign Interventions for Older Pilots
Mary E. Ziegler Poppen and Catherine S. Daus
Department of Psychology
Southern Illinois University

As the workforce increasingly ages, it will be critical to find ways of accommodating

the decrements in abilities that come with age. Finding accommodations will be of
particular concern for occupations such as airline pilot, in which small errors may result in fatal accidents. This study examined the perceived performance of older pilots,
if information on ergonomic redesign interventions had a significant effect on attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots, and how perceived
performance and type of information interacted to affect attitudes toward ergonomic
redesign interventions for older pilots. Participants in the study included 147 flight instructors and 24 student pilots. Results and implications for future research are discussed.

It is an inescapable fact that the workforce is aging. By the Year 2000, one third of
the entire working population will be 45 years of age or older (Hassell & Perrewe,
1993). At the same time that the population of older people is increasing, older
adults participation in the labor force is declining (Czaja, 1994). With a shrinking
supply of younger workers during the decade ahead, the retention of older workers
will be vital to our economic health (Rother & Edwards, 1982). Organizations will
be forced to recognize the importance of employing older workers and will find it
profitable to increase employment opportunities for capable older workers who
need and want to work (Beach, 1982; Hassell & Perrewe, 1995).

Requests for reprints should be sent to Catherine S. Daus, Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Alumni Hall, Rooms 0118, 0128, Edwardsville, IL 620261121.

Downloaded by [George Mason University] at 20:39 31 December 2014

14

POPPEN AND DAUS

There could be a problem in retaining older workers due to societal stereotypes.

Much of the discrimination against older workers stems from misconceptions
about their physical and mental abilities (Hansson, DeKoekkoek, Neece, &
Patterson, 1997; Conrad, Lupren, Thanasoulis, & McEwen, 1997; Maxey & Kerr,
1982; Perry, 1997). Some of these stereotypes include that older workers have
slowed performance, increased accidents, poor health, and that they are not as productive as younger workers (Garg, 1991). Negative stereotypes may explain the
fact that older workers receive lower performance ratings and are recommended
for promotion one half as often when compared to younger workers (Czaja, 1994;
Hassell & Perrewe, 1993).
Management should be concerned with dispelling myths about older workers as
they may be losing opportunities to employ or retain the most experienced and
knowledgeable workers due to age-performance stereotypes. Perhaps what should
be considered is using perceptual (perceived age of the worker) and contextual (the
workers age in relation to the ages of coworkers) age in conjunction with chronological age. Cleveland and Shore (1992) found that an interactive term of more
than one type of age measure predicts performance above and beyond the use of
chronological age alone. However, it should be noted that the significant interaction that Cleveland and Shore found may have been due to measuring the variable
more reliably in the interaction.1 This finding suggests that using multiple age
measures to predict performance may allow for more reliable results.
Some argue that because age accounts for only a small amount of variance in
performance, there is no basis for using age instead of ability scores as a decision-making index in personnel decisions (Arthur, Fuentes, & Doverspike, 1990;
Waldman & Avolio, 1995, as cited in Park, 1994). Arthur et al.s argument was
consistent with federal law in that unless there are safety-related rules, the use of
age will be contrary to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
(amended in 1978, 1984, 1986, and 1987), which supports the basic premise that
age is not a valid indicator of ability to perform (Gatewood & Feild, 1994).
This represents a dilemma for certain occupations because in the past courts
have relied on chronological age as the best estimate of ability to perform jobs in
which standards for evaluating these abilities were not clear, such as for pilots.
Even today, the Age 60 Rule (1995) that was decided almost 35 years ago by the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) remains as a mandatory retirement age for
commercial airline pilots.
It has been suggested that rather than using age to assess flight ability, direct
and indirect measures, such as sampling job performance using simulators and
testing information processing ability, should be used instead (Birren & Fisher,
1995).

We thank an anonymous reviewer for this observation.

ATTITUDES TOWARD PILOTS

15

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DECREMENTS IN ABILITY DUE TO AGING

Although older workers are defined as 40+ by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (Gatewood & Feild, 1994), for the purpose of this article, older
workers will be defined as 50+, which is a common age for defining older workers
in aviation literature (Stuck, van Gorp, Josephson, Morgenstern, & Beck, 1992;
Taylor et al., 1994).
According to the age decrement model, there are decreases in many abilities
with increasing age (Arthur et al., 1990). Most of the research on decrements in
abilities of older workers has focused on the decline in vision, audition, intelligence, memory, physical ability, and sensorymotor activity (Cerella, 1985;
Charness & Bosman, 1994; Garg, 1991; Park, 1994; Sharit & Czaja, 1994).
However, not all older workers experience decrements in ability as human aging is accompanied by an increase in the range and diversity of abilities both within
and between individuals (Rabbitt, 1991). There is much evidence for a nonuniform
pattern of age-related changes in adulthood across abilities (Birren & Fisher, 1995;
Sharit & Czaja, 1994). In fact, some individuals are in worse physical or mental
condition at age 40 than others are at age 60 (The Age 60 Rule, 1995; Garg, 1991).
The evidence that shows variability in the timing of age-related declines has
implications for business: To be competitive, organizations need to capitalize on
the diverse talents and abilities of all people, including the older workers. Organizations would benefit because older workers tend to have strong company loyalty,
low turnover and absenteeism rates, are highly reliable, and will add stability and
continuity to the workforce (Lyons, 1982).

ACTUAL PERFORMANCE OF OLDER WORKERS

Perceived performance of older workers and actual performance can differ greatly.
Research on age and actual job performance has shown mixed results (Czaja,
1994). A possible explanation could be that the relation between age and job performance depends on the type of performance measures used. For example, if production records were the dependent variable, a positive relation between performance
and age resulted; however, when supervisory ratings of performance were the dependent variable, an inverse relation was found (Czaja, 1994; Park, 1994; Smith,
1990). It is possible that when supervisory ratings were used, negative attitudes
held toward older workers may have influenced the ratings.
Studies on actual pilot performance are few, but those that do exist reveal a
discrepancy in results depending on which performance measures were used to
assess the ability of older pilots (e.g., accident rate, air traffic controller [ATC]
readbacks, simulated flight performance). In terms of accident rate information
compiled by the FAA, an interaction between age (pilots aged 30 to 59 were in-

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16

POPPEN AND DAUS

cluded) and recent flight time (hours flown during the previous year) for Class I,
II, and III pilots (passing a medical examination every 6 months, every year, and
every 2 years, respectively) revealed that accident rate decreased with increased
age until age 40 and then leveled off. In addition, accident rates were examined
for Class II and III pilots over age 60. Results indicated that accident rate for
Class II and III pilots aged 60 to 64 did not differ from that of the group aged 55
to 59 but was lower than that of the group aged 65 to 69 (Kay et al., 1993). Class
III pilots aged 60 to 69 also have been found to have fewer accidents per hour
flown than Class III pilots in most younger age groups (Stuck et al., 1992).
These results are surprising as our society tends to view older workers as more
accident-prone than younger workers (Garg, 1991). The implications of the previous research to this investigation are many in that perceptions about the performance of older pilots may differ greatly from their actual performance due to
the stereotypes defined earlier (Czaja, 1994; Garg, 1991; Hassell & Perrewe,
1993, 1995; Maxey & Kerr, 1982).
Additional studies on pilot performance reveal results contrary to those mentioned earlier in that older pilots have been shown to perform worse on certain
tasks than younger pilots. One such study, conducted by Taylor et al. (1994), revealed that older pilots have a higher rate of inaccurate and incomplete readbacks
on long ATC messages. In addition, older pilots were less accurate on average in
executing ATC commands than younger pilots when controlling the plane.
Moreover, Leirer, Yesavage, and Morrow (1989) tested pilots in a light aircraft
simulator in which they flew for 15 min under both calm and moderately turbulent
weather conditions; turbulence consisted of variable fluctuations in altitude. The
study revealed that older pilots consistently did not perform as well as younger pilots under both conditions.

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING
TO PILOT ERRORS AND ACCIDENTS
Factors that contribute to errors or accidents for pilots include mechanical errors;
weather; stress; navigation maps (OHare, Roscoe, Vette, & Young, 1990); communication errors between pilots and ATCs; and errors in information acquisition,
processing, and decision making (Wiener & Nagel, 1988). Additional factors include pilots deviating from standard procedure (Birren & Fisher, 1995); visual attention being divided between outside cues, cockpit instruments, charts, and landing checklists (Gilson & Fenton, 1974); and pilots flying prior to 14 hr after
drinking enough alcohol to be considered legally intoxicated (Yesavage & Leirer,
1986).
Many factors that contribute to pilot error are exacerbated with age. For example, adjustment to time cue shifts becomes more difficult with increasing age, thus

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ATTITUDES TOWARD PILOTS

17

leading to increased fatigue for older pilots (Klein, Wegmann, Athanassenas,

Hohlweck, & Kuklinski, 1976). Another factor is when controls or displays are designed differently than what pilots are used to. For example, to climb, the stick
must be moved forward instead of backward as the pilot was originally trained to
do (Hendrick, 1983). When reverse controls such as these are implemented, performance of more experienced (older) pilots decreases significantly more than the
performance of younger pilots who have more recently been trained and are relatively inexperienced (Hendrick, 1983).
Although age and job performance studies reveal mixed data, older pilots performance was expected to be perceived as negative by training and testing staff
and student pilots.

ACCOMMODATING AGE DECREMENTS

Although there are some decrements that accompany aging, many of these can be
accommodated. Experience is one way older workers are able to compensate for
ability declines (Arthur et al., 1990; Czaja, 1994; Park, 1994; Salthouse, 1994). A
second way to accommodate for decline in abilities is to train older workers in new
skills. This might give them a chance to adequately compete in the labor market
(Arthur et al., 1990; Kirkland, 1982).
Other ways to accommodate older workers are with part-time, shared jobs, reduced work loads, or flex time (Beach, 1982; Ralston, 1989). These accommodations would be especially beneficial for older workers in terms of reducing work
load, stress-related illnesses, and physical and mental fatigue because these effects
tend to have a greater impact on older versus younger workers.

ERGONOMIC REDESIGN INTERVENTIONS FOR PILOTS

There are jobs in which the aforementioned accommodations (i.e., flex time and
job-sharing) would not be effective in improving the performance of older workers.
Piloting is one such occupation in which these accommodations may not be practically appropriate. For example, how would an airline schedule flights if all pilots
could choose their own hours? Ergonomic redesign may be an alternate intervention. The objective of ergonomics is to increase efficiency, productivity, comfort,
and safety of the operator, as well as decrease errors, accidents, injuries, and illnesses through efficient redesign of jobs. According to Campion (1988) this approach focuses on the minimization of physical stress and strain on the worker by
making recommendations for such features as strength and endurance requirements and noise and climate limits (p. 468). This approach is contrasted with several other job redesign approaches (Campion, 1988) focusing on the motivational

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POPPEN AND DAUS

nature, human resource efficiency (e.g., staffing and training), or human mental capabilities and limitations.
The term ergonomics has traditionally focused on the physiological aspects of
the manmachine interface, whereas human factors places greater emphasis on the
psychological issues affecting this relation (Campion, 1988; Garg, 1991). This article includes both physiological and psychological effects. The term ergonomic
redesign will be used to refer to any type of job or testing equipment redesign.
Ergonomic modifications can compensate for diminished physical and mental
work capacities (i.e., visual decline and the slowing of sensorymotor activities)
that accompany age and greatly affect pilots performance. An ergonomic redesign intervention that would be beneficial to pilots would be one that optimizes
their visual performance, which may involve improved lighting, maximized contrast between information on control panels and the backgrounds, increased size of
visual detail, color coding controls, and glare avoidance. To promote better auditory performance, minimizing background noise, staying within the 1000- to
2000-Hz frequency band, and eliminating reverberation would be good examples
of design techniques (Charness & Bosman, 1994).
An additional area in which ergonomic redesign would be beneficial to pilots
is in control and display redesign. As Garg (1991) noted, controls and switches
used by older workers should be designed so that they do not need to be pinched
or grasped tightly or require large wrist deviations or forces to operate. In addition, displays should be designed to provide information in the clearest possible
manner so that a minimum amount of memory and translation is required. Moreover, because it appears that age-related changes are more evident in perceptual
and decision-making capabilities than in the ability to execute movements,
changing the structure of the task such as strengthening signals by increasing
their intensity, positioning controls in a way that will minimize irrelevant details, and clearly indicating which actions are necessary will reduce the differences in speed of decision time between older and younger pilots. The cockpit
and equipment used in the air or for testing purposes could also be redesigned to
minimize decrements in ability. The benefits associated with such redesign include higher productivity and lower accident rates among the older workers
(Charness & Bosman, 1994; Lyons, 1982).

ATTITUDE FORMATION OR ALTERATION

Although organizations may want to improve workers productivity, they may not
be aware of how to do it or what the benefits would be of using certain intervention
techniques, or they may not believe such interventions would work. There are several ways to inform or persuade individuals to use recommended intervention techniques such as ergonomic redesign.

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ATTITUDES TOWARD PILOTS

19

Davidson, Yantis, Norwood, and Montano (1985) revealed that providing new
information in large quantities strongly influences attitudes. In addition, if the information presented contains many strong messages of a favorable nature, people
will be more likely to agree with those messages, especially if the information addresses an individuals salient beliefs (Chaiken & Stangor, 1987). Moreover, research has repeatedly demonstrated that information conveyed by an expert source
is more persuasive and leads to attitude change more often than when the information is received from a nonexpert source (Middlebrook, 1980).
If an attitude toward something does not already exist, asking the individual
questions about the attitude object may create one. This newly formed attitude will
then be used to answer subsequent questions about the same attitude object
(Feldman & Lynch, 1988). Eagly, Mladinic, and Otto (1994) noted that people
with positive attitudes toward an attitude object are likely to infer that favorable attributes characterize the attitude object, whereas those with negative attitudes are
likely to infer that unfavorable attributes characterize the attitude object.
It was predicted that training and testing staff and student pilots would have
more favorable attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots
if given information about the benefits of ergonomic redesign interventions, such
as those given earlier, than when given neutral or negative information.
In combining Hypotheses 1 and 2, an interaction between perceived performance and type of information received was anticipated such that those who perceived the performance of older pilots as negative would have more favorable
attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots when given positive information about such interventions than when given neutral or negative information. Conversely, those who perceived older pilots performance as positive
would have a less favorable attitude toward ergonomic redesign interventions for
older pilots regardless of receiving positive, neutral, or negative information about
such interventions.

METHOD
Participants
Participants in the study included 147 flight instructors and 24 student pilots. Student pilots were utilized to ensure a diverse sample of ages. The participants were
from various types of companies in the Midwest, including two commercial airlines,
seven aviation charter companies, one Fortune 500 company that employs corporate
pilots, one flight school, and some private pilots. Participation was voluntary.
Due to the nature of the study, 72 participants were dropped from the analyses
of the hypotheses6 did not complete the Attitude Toward Ergonomic Redesign
for Older Pilots survey, 1 did not receive a manipulation fact sheet, and 65 held

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POPPEN AND DAUS

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neutral attitudes toward the performance of older pilots, as indicated by the Attitude Toward Older Pilots survey (see the following measures). For our analyses,
neutral attitudes would not be useful to interpret. Thus, the total number of participants used in the analyses was 99 (86 flight instructors and 13 student pilots). The
participants demographic responses revealed 91% were White, 7% minority, and
2% did not respond to the ethnicity item; 93% were male and 7% were female; the
mean age was 39; the mean education level was 4-year college graduate; and the
mean number of years as a flight instructor was 9.

Measures

Perceived performance. To measure the training and testing personnels

and student pilots perceptions of the performance of older pilots, the Beliefs About
Older Workers questionnaire, which is a modified version of the Attitudes Toward
the Employment of Older People questionnaire (Hassell & Perrewe, 1995), was used.
This measure contains 27 items that assess the degree to which one holds negative or
positive beliefs about older workers. The items have been modified to specify older
pilots, thus it will be referred to as the Attitude Toward Older Pilots survey. A 5-point
Likert-type scale with a range from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) and
potential total scores ranging from 27 to 135 was used to measure the responses. Low
scores indicate an overall negative belief about older pilots, whereas high scores indicate positive beliefs. Items 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 17, 22, and 25 were reverse
scored so that lower ratings meant negative attitudes and higher ratings meant positive attitudes. This measure has been shown to be content valid, and the internal consistency reliability from past research using Cronbachs alpha was found to be .85
(Hassell & Perrewe, 1995). Cronbachs alpha in this study was .89.
To create a variable for analysis representing perceptions of older pilot performance, scores on the Attitude Toward Older Pilots survey were trichotomized
such that those who scored above a 3.25 were said to have more favorable perceptions about the performance of older pilots, whereas those who scored less than
2.75 were said to have less favorable perceptions. Those participants scores that
fell between 2.75 and 3.25 were not used in further analyses. Due to the fact that
there is error variance associated with any test score, we chose to take out the middle half-point of the scale to more reliably categorize individuals as truly being
more or less favorable toward older pilots. This (now) dichotomized perception
variable used in the analyses was coded such that negative perceptions of older pilot performance received a 1, whereas positive perceptions received a 2.
Attitude toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots. To
measure attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots, a
5-item survey was developed. The items assessed the degree to which one held fa-

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ATTITUDES TOWARD PILOTS

21

vorable or unfavorable attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older

pilots. The survey was developed based on the research of attitudes toward older
workers performance (Czaja, 1994; Garg, 1991; Hassell & Perrewe, 1993, 1995;
Maxey & Kerr, 1982), studies revealing increased accident and error rates of older
pilots (Hendrick, 1983; Klein et al., 1976; Leirer et al., 1989; Sloan & Cooper,
1986; Taylor et al., 1994), and on the literature discussing ergonomic redesign
(Charness & Bosman, 1994; Czaja, 1994; Garg, 1991). A 5-point Likert-type scale
with a range from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) and potential total
scores ranging from 5 to 25 was used to measure responses. The average of each
participants responses was used to identify overall attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots. To make the scale on this survey consistent
with the scale on the Attitude Toward Older Pilots survey, responses were reversed
so that low scores indicated an unfavorable attitude toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots, whereas high scores indicated a favorable attitude.
Cronbachs alpha in this study was .88.

Ergonomic Redesign Manipulation

Participants received a fact sheet on ergonomic redesign interventions that contained one of three conditions: (a) positive information, which included a definition
of ergonomic redesign and statements on its benefits (such as improved performance and higher morale) as well as some filler statements (i.e., ergonomic redesign is based on industrial engineering principles); (b) negative information, which
included a definition and statements on the drawbacks (such as cost and time to implement) as well as some filler statements; and (c) neutral information, which included a definition and several filler statements. A manipulation check item, which
asked the participants to rate the statements they were given as positive, neutral, or
negative on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 to 5, was also included on all of the
fact sheets to ensure that the information was interpreted correctly.
Participants were notified in the directions of the fact sheet that the definition,
subsequent facts, or both came from a book written by an expert on ergonomics because the literature has shown that information presented by an expert is more
credible and persuasive (Middlebrook, 1980). In actuality, the definition of ergonomics was taken from Garg (1991). The rest of the information on the fact sheets
was based on research that has revealed costs and benefits of ergonomic redesign
(Campion, 1988, 1991; Charness & Bosman, 1994; Czaja, 1994; Garg, 1991; Lyons, 1982; Maurino, 1994). The manipulations were pilot tested prior to the study
to ensure that items were interpreted as intended. Thirty-three undergraduate students agreed to participate. The students were asked to rate statements about ergonomic redesign interventions in terms of how positive, neutral, or negative they
perceived them to be. To determine which of the statements were perceived as in-

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POPPEN AND DAUS

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tended, the average rating for each item was used, and (arbitrary) cut-off scores
designated for each category were chosen: A cut-point of below 2.5 was set for
positive statements, at or above 2.5 but below 3.5 for neutral statements, and at or
above 3.5 for negative statements (analyses used reflected scores so that higher
numbers represented positive statements and lower numbers represented negative
statements). Results revealed 11 negative statements, 12 positive statements, and 5
neutral, filler statements.
Procedure
Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental (receiving positive or
negative information on the fact sheet) or control (receiving neutral information on
the fact sheet) condition such that one third received positive information, one third
received negative information, and one third received neutral information.
Participants received an instruction sheet that included information about the
study, as well as how to fill out the enclosed materials, in what order, and what to
do with the materials when they were finished. They also received the informed
consent form, the demographics sheet, the Attitude Toward Older Pilots survey,
and a fact sheet.
After their data were returned, they received the Attitude Toward Ergonomic
Redesign Interventions for Older Pilots survey as a follow-up and another instruction sheet that contained directions on what to do with the survey when they had
completed it. Once those data were returned, participants received a debriefing
statement explaining the purpose of the study, a thank you, and a number to call in
case they had any further questions or concerns.

RESULTS
Relations Among the Variables
Table 1 shows results of the measures of association analyses. Pearson and
point-biserial2 correlations were computed where appropriate. In addition, because
we had several nominal variables (company, ethnicity, actual type of information
received, perceived type of information received) and dichotomous variables (gender, pilot type, perceptions of older pilots), Goodmans Lambda3 was computed to
2It should be noted that the point-biserial correlation is simply a special computational formula of the
Pearson correlation that takes advantage of dichotomized group means.
3Goodmans Lambda is an alternative to chi-square as a measure of association for two nominal variables. The value represents the proportionate reduction in error in predicting one variable from another
variable and is interpreted as a percentage.

205
1
.80
2

.83
.82
.37
.47
.75

125
3
2
3

1
.79
.16
3
3

11
4
.81
.25
9

SD

.60

.27
.11

.00
.14
.07

.54*
.45
.33
.14

.23*
.57
.06
.08
.06

.01

.04
.31
.27
.04
.04

.01
.24*

.04
.64
.17
.07
.03

.14
.05
.10

.03
.50
.10
.04
.11

.08
.01
.01
.03

.05
.01
.06
.00
.10

10

.52**

.08
.11
.07
.12

.05
.01
.05
.02
.22*

11

.02
.01

.35*
.19
.14
.03

.92**
.08
.08
.13**
.23*

12

.01
.02
.01

.04
.01
.24*
.08

.24*
.22*
.07
.03
.13

13

.27*
.30*
.03
.29*

.11
.05
.11
.08

.16
.44
.26
.06
.19

14

Note. N = 171; DV = dependent variable (attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions).

aThe variables used were the Pearson and point-biserial correlations, Goodmans Lambda, and eta coefficients. b0 = White, 1 = Black, 2 = Asian American, 3 = Native
American, 4 = Hispanic, 5 = Other. c0 = male, 1 = female. d1 = no knowledge, 2 = limited knowledge, 3 = minimal knowledge, 4 = some knowledge, 5 = much knowledge. e0 =
high school, 1 = technical college, 2 = college (undergraduate), 3 = college (graduate). f0 = negative, 1 = neutral, 2 = positive. g0 = flight instructor/rater/pilot, 1 = student pilot.
h1 = negative perceptions of older pilot performance, 2 = positive perceptions of older pilot performance.
*p < .05. **p < .001.

10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

6.
7.
8.
9.

38
6
.20
.06
8

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Age
Company
Ethnicityb
Genderc
How long (years of flight
instruct)
How often (times a year)
Knowledged (of Ergonomics)
Educatione
Number of years (completed
school)
Actual type info receivedf
Perceived type info receivedf
Pilot typeg
Perception (of older pilots)h
Total survey 2 (DV)

Variable

TABLE 1
Means, Standard Deviations, and Measures of Association Among the Variablesa

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POPPEN AND DAUS

assess the relations between two nominal variables, and eta coefficients4 were computed to assess the relations between interval level variables and nominal variables.
Several interesting significant relations were found. The relation between how
long the pilots have been flight instructors and how they perceived the information
regarding ergonomic redesign interventions given in the fact sheets was such that
the longer they have been instructors, the more negative they perceived any information on ergonomic redesign interventions, r = .22, p < .05. The relation between knowledge of ergonomic redesign and amount of education revealed that
knowledge of ergonomic redesign increases with increasing education, r = .24, p <
.05. In addition, an increase in education was significantly related to negative perceptions of older pilot performance, r = .24, p < .05. Conversely, an increase in
age was significantly related to positive perceptions of older pilot performance, r =
.24, p < .05.
Consistent with Hypothesis 2, receiving positive information on ergonomic redesign was significantly related to favorable attitudes toward ergonomic redesign
interventions for older pilots, whereas receiving negative information was significantly related to negative attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for
older pilots, r = .27, p < .05. Further, when participants perceived the information
they received (as opposed to actual type they received) on ergonomic redesign interventions as positive, they had more favorable attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots, whereas perceiving the information as negative
was related to negative attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for
older pilots, r = .30, p < .05.
Consistent with Hypothesis 3, when participants perceived the performance of
older pilots as negative, they held more favorable attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots; when they perceived older pilots performance as positive, they held less favorable attitudes toward ergonomic redesign
interventions for older pilots, r = .29, p < .05.

Manipulation Check
Means and standard deviations of perceived type of information received were analyzed by type of information actually received. The negative, neutral, and positive
information were coded as 0, 1, and 2, respectively. The means and standard deviations for perceived type within actual type were as follows: negative information
(M = 1.5, SD = .75); neutral information (M = .78, SD = .64); and positive information (M = .01, SD = .30). Perceived type and actual type of information received
were highly significantly related, = .52, p < .001.
4Eta is a measure of association used with one nominal variable and one interval level variable. When
squared, it represents the proportion of variance in the dependent variable accounted for by the independent variable.

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Hypothesis Testing5

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Hypothesis 1. Hypothesis 1, which states that the perceived performance of

older pilots will be negative, was not supported. Overall, the perceptions of older
pilot performance were slightly more positive than negative as indicated by a mean
greater than 3 on the Attitude Toward Older Pilots survey (M = 3.25).
Hypothesis 2. Hypothesis 2, which states that when training and testing personnel or student pilots are given positive information about ergonomic redesign
interventions they will have more favorable attitudes toward such interventions for
older pilots than when given neutral or negative information, was tested using a
one-way between-subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA). Although actual type
and perceived type of information received were highly significantly related ( =
.52), they were not perfectly related. Thus, two separate analyses were run to check
for any differences between these variables on attitude toward ergonomic redesign
interventions for older pilots.
The first ANOVA with actual type of information received as the independent
variable and attitude toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots as
the dependent variable revealed support for Hypothesis 2, F(2, 96) = 3.89, p < .05
(see Table 2). A priori contrasts with Bonferroni adjustments revealed a significant
difference between the positive and negative information conditions only, t(96) =
2.79, p < .05.
The second ANOVA with perceived type of information received as the independent variable also revealed support for Hypothesis 2, F(2, 89) = 6.37, p < .05
(see Table 2). A priori contrasts with Bonferroni adjustments revealed a significant
TABLE 2
One-Way Between-Subjects ANOVA for Actual and Perceived Type of Information
Received on Attitude Toward Ergonomic Redesign Interventions for Older Pilots
Source

df

SS

MS

Actual type
Error
Perceived type
Error

2
96
2
89

4.73
58.33
7.65
53.51

2.36
.61
3.83
.60

3.89*
6.37*

*p < .05.

5Control variables were analyzed using a covariate analysis of variance to see if any should be controlled for in subsequent analyses as covariates. Only two were significant: education, F(3, 94) = 2.76, p
< .05, and number of years completed at a particular education level, F(7, 86) = 2.28, p < .05. Because using them as covariates in the analyses did not change the nature of the relations between the independent
variables and the dependent variable, the analyses that include them are not reported.

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difference between the positive and negative and positive and neutral information
conditions, t(89) = 2.67, p < .05, and t(89) = 3.19, p < .05, respectively.

Hypothesis 3. Hypothesis 3, which predicted an interaction between perceptions of pilot performance and type of information received, was tested using a 2
3 between-subjects ANOVA. Again, both actual type and perceived type of information received were used in the analyses.
The first ANOVA was used with actual type of information received and perceptions of pilot performance as the independent variables and attitude toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots as the dependent variable. The
perception main effect was significant, F(1, 93) = 7.13, p < .05. As shown in Figure 1, means of the interaction were as follows: positive attitudes toward older pilots and negative information (M = 2.78); neutral information (M = 3.24); positive
information (M = 3.36); negative attitudes toward older pilots and negative information (M = 3.62); neutral information (M = 3.31); and positive information (M =
3.82). The actual type of information main effect and the interaction were not significant (see Tables 3 and 4).
The second ANOVA was used with perceived type instead of actual type of information as an independent variable. Again, the perception main effect was significant, F(1, 86) = 10.82, p < .05. As shown in Figure 2, means of the interaction
were as follows: positive attitudes toward older pilots and negative information (M
= 2.76); neutral information (M = 2.81); positive information (M = 3.48); negative
attitudes toward older pilots and negative information (M = 3.51); neutral informa-

FIGURE 1 Means of the interaction between perceptions of older pilot performance and actual type of information received on ergonomic redesign interventions. The white bars indicate
positive perceptions, and the shaded bars indicate negative perceptions.

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TABLE 3
Two-Way (2 3) Between-Subjects ANOVA for Perceptions of Pilot Performance
and Actual and Perceived Type of Information Received on Attitude Toward Ergonomic
Redesign Interventions for Older Pilots
Source

df

SS

MS

Percep
AT
Percep AT
Error

1
2
2
93

3.99
2.42
1.76
52.02

3.99
1.21
0.88
0.56

7.13*
2.17
1.57

Percep
PT
Percep PT
Error

1
2
2
86

5.96
4.13
1.00
47.32

5.96
0.07
0.50
0.55

10.82*
3.75*
0.91

Note. Percep = perceptions; AT = actual type; PT = perceived type.

*p < .05.
TABLE 4
Means of the Interaction: Perceived Performance and Type of Information Received
Perceived Performance
Positive
Type of Information Received
Actual type
Positive
Neutral
Negative
Perceived type
Positive
Neutral
Negative

Negative

22
23
26

3.36
3.24
2.78

12
7
9

3.82
3.31
3.62

29
21
15

3.48
2.81
2.76

13
5
9

3.77
3.56
3.51

tion (M = 3.56); and positive information (M = 3.77). The interaction, however,

was not significant (see Tables 3 and 4).
Even though the interactions were not significant, more specific analyses were
conducted to thoroughly examine the nature of the results. Contrary to Hypothesis
3, when perceptions of older pilot performance were positive, actual type of information received had a significant effect on attitudes toward ergonomic redesign
interventions for older pilots in the direction of the information received, F(2, 93)
= 4.09, p < .05.
Simple effects analyses were performed using Bonferroni adjustments on perceptions of older pilot performance within actual and perceived type of informa-

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28

POPPEN AND DAUS

FIGURE 2 Means of the interaction between perceptions of older pilot performance and perceived type of information received on ergonomic redesign interventions. The white bars indicate positive perceptions, and the shaded bars indicate negative perceptions.

tion conditions. This was done to find the sources of significant effects on the
dependent variable. Comparisons revealed a significant difference between positive and negative perceptions of older pilot performance within the negative information condition only for both actual and perceived type of information received,
F(1, 93) = 8.39, p < .02 and F(1, 86) = 5.77, p < .02, respectively.

DISCUSSION
This study examined the perceived performance of older pilots, if information on
ergonomic redesign interventions (positive, neutral, or negative) had a significant
effect on attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots, and
how perceived performance and type of information interacted to affect attitudes
toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots.

Findings
In contrast to previous research, which revealed support for negative stereotypes
toward older workers (Czaja, 1994; Garg, 1991; Hassell & Perrewe, 1993, 1995;
Maxey & Kerr, 1982), this study found more positive than negative attitudes toward older pilots.
One possible reason for this finding could be that in the pilot industry older pilots are well respected and held in high esteem by both older and younger pilots.

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ATTITUDES TOWARD PILOTS

29

Another possible reason could be that people, in any job, do not like to think of
themselves as declining in ability to do their jobs either at present or in the future.
Because pilots were the only participants and they were being asked about pilots,
perhaps they denied the possibility of decreasing performance, thus protecting
their own self-esteem, self-concept, or both.
An additional finding confirmed the expectation that type of information received on ergonomic redesign interventions would affect attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots (based on the literature discussing the
benefits and costs associated with ergonomic redesign; Campion, 1988, 1991;
Charness & Bosman, 1994; Czaja, 1994; Garg, 1991; Lyons, 1982; Maurino,
1994); when participants received positive information on ergonomic redesign interventions, they had favorable attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions
for older pilots, whereas those who received negative information had unfavorable
attitudes.
An explanation for why the manipulations worked so well could be that the information on ergonomic redesign was said to come from an expert (Middlebrook,
1980). Another explanation, consistent with the literature on attitude formation
(Chaiken & Stangor, 1987), could be that the strong positive or negative nature of
the manipulation statements led to more positive or negative attitudes.
The anticipated interaction between perceptions of pilot performance and type
of information received was not found. One plausible explanation is that participants were only affected by one of the independent variables (their perception of
older pilot performance or type of information received on ergonomic redesign interventions) when making a decision about whether ergonomic redesign interventions would be valuable for older pilots, thereby ignoring the other variable.
Another reason could be low power due to small sample size (Cohen, 1977), thus
rendering it unlikely that the interaction would reach significance.
Although the interaction was not statistically significant, there was partial
support for Hypothesis 3 in that when older pilots were perceived as poor performers, attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots were
positive, and when older pilots were perceived as competent performers there
were more negative attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older
pilots.
This finding suggests that implementing ergonomic redesign interventions for
older pilots would only be viewed as valuable if they are perceived as declining in
performance. This is in opposition to what Rosen and Jerdee (1976) suggested in
their research on age stereotypes and managerial decisions:
People are less likely to recommend organizational support to maintain and develop
the skills of older employees, and are also strongly opposed to providing retraining
opportunities for older employees who no longer possess the job knowledge to carry
out their job assignments effectively. (p. 431)

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POPPEN AND DAUS

Perhaps the pilot industry differs greatly from the typical business context in which
so many research studies are conducted on age stereotypes, or maybe attitudes toward older workers in general have changed over the last 20 years.
Although there was partial support for Hypothesis 3, an antithetical finding was
also revealed. When perceptions of older pilot performance were positive, actual
type of information received had a significant effect on attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots in the direction of the information received.
A possible explanation for this is consistent with the attitude research conducted by Chaiken and Stangor (1987), which revealed that when information presented to individuals contains many strong messages of a favorable, or
unfavorable, nature, they will be more likely to agree, or disagree, with those messages, especially if the information addresses an individuals salient beliefs. Because participants already possessed positive attitudes toward older pilots, any
information they were given that was considered helpful to older pilots would have
been viewed favorably, whereas any information that was not seen as beneficial
for older pilots would have been viewed negatively.

Implications and Applications

Pilots. What these findings mean for older pilots is that, in general, they are
seen as capable of performing their jobs. This is positive for pilots in that chronological age alone does not lead to the negative stereotypes associated with older
workers in general. This research does not directly address the issue of whether to
use chronological age alone, in conjunction with, or in place of other measures of
age. Some researchers (Arthur, Fuentes, & Doverspike, 1990; Cleveland & Shore,
1992; Waldman & Avolio, 1995, as cited in Park, 1994) suggest that it is necessary
to consider alternate methods of measuring pilot performance so that an accurate
assessment can be made for pilots of all ages as the abilities of some decline more
rapidly than the abilities of others. We suggested that with pilots, this issue needs to
be empirically explored more fully before a definitive answer can be given.
In addition, the findings reveal that those who do see older pilots as declining in
performance have particularly positive attitudes toward ergonomic redesign interventions. This means that people are positive toward helping older pilots fly as
long and as safely as possible.

Older workers. For older workers, these findings suggest that there is hope
for moving away from the stereotypes of the older worker as less capable on the job.
Moreover, if managers are given positive information about accommodations for
older workers, such as retraining, it may shift their attitudes toward being more pos-

ATTITUDES TOWARD PILOTS

31

itive about older workers productivity, trainability, and ability to learn new skills.
This, in turn, may lead to more positive attitudes toward making accommodations
for retaining older workers as long as possible.

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Age 60 Rule. The findings of this study are particularly relevant for the
mandatory retirement Age 60 Rule for commercial pilots. As Rosen and Jerdee
(1976) noted,
In instances where mandatory retirement restricts the potential tenure of older employees, administrators may view investments in the development or promotion of
older employees as yielding less organization benefit, compared to similar expenditure for the development or promotion of younger employees. (p. 432)

If the Age 60 Rule were ever lifted, the realization of a need to accommodate older
workers would be much more prevalent. Accommodations would be a necessary
requirement for two reasons: (a) the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of
1967, which has the intention of eliminating barriers to employment based on age
(Gatewood & Feild, 1994), and (b) for the safety of the passengers and crew.
Further, alternate methods of assessing performance would be necessary. Chronological age in and of itself would no longer be an acceptable reason to force retirement or disallow a pilot to fly.

Limitations of the Study

One of the limitations of this research is that data were only collected from pilots in
the Midwest region of the United States. Generalizability, therefore, may be affected. Pilots from other parts of the world may differ in their attitudes toward both
older pilot performance and ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots.
A second limitation is that data were only collected from pilots. Nonpilots
should have been included in the study as well in order to compare results. The outlooks pilots have on their performance, and how to improve performance, may differ from attitudes held by those who are not pilots.

Future Research
Future research should continue to focus on what leads to the negative stereotypes
held toward older workers so that prevention strategies can be designed and implemented. In addition, there needs to be a focus on different methods of assessing pilot performance. One possible alternate method is functional age, or how well the

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POPPEN AND DAUS

pilot can perform necessary job duties regardless of chronological age. To assess
functional age, the direct and indirect measures for evaluating flight ability suggested by Birren and Fisher (1995; e.g., sampling job performance using simulators
and testing information processing ability) could be utilized. Chronological age
alone may lead companies to feel that an accommodation such as ergonomic redesign is not necessary or may fuel the belief that at a specific age pilots should no longer be able to fly.
Moreover, future research should look at other factors that may affect attitudes
toward ergonomic redesign interventions for older pilots, as well as for all older
workers. It is important to determine what factors affect whether ergonomic redesign would be accepted as an intervention for older workers and if it would be
viewed as a worthy investment to the company.
Attitudes toward the performance of older workers and ergonomic redesign interventions have not been given much attention in the literature. With the
workforce aging at an ever increasing rate, it will become extremely important to
know what factors play a role in these attitudes so that effective interventions can
be found for accommodating older workers.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was funded in part through Research Grants for Graduate Students
from the Graduate School of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
We thank Lynn K. Bartels, James W. Grice, Stephen W. Tuholski, and Anthony
J. Traxler for their contributions.
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Manuscript first received June 1998