Age stereotypes in appeals for intergenerational solidarity: disentangling the paradox

Why this matters for everyday life

The COVID-19 pandemic did not just test our health systems; it also tested how different generations see and support each other. This article looks at how newspapers in Germany talked about “the young” and “the old” during the pandemic, and how these stories shaped ideas of fairness, responsibility, and togetherness. Understanding these patterns helps explain why calls for solidarity across generations can sometimes, unintentionally, deepen divides instead of healing them.

How the media told the story of risk

At the start of the pandemic, news reports quickly singled out older people as the main risk group. Age itself, not just health status, became a shortcut for danger and vulnerability. Articles often described older adults as fragile bodies needing protection, while younger people were pictured as fit, energetic, and naturally resilient. This split created a simple storyline: younger people were expected to act, help, and sacrifice; older people were to stay home, shielded from harm. Solidarity here looked like one-way care, flowing from the strong to the weak, with age used as an easy marker of who belonged on which side.

Different lives under lockdown

As the crisis went on, news coverage shifted from physical health to the everyday experience of lockdown. Stories about “Generation Corona” stressed how young people missed key milestones: parties, graduations, travel, and early careers. They were shown as hungry for social contact and new experiences, now forced to put life on hold. Older adults, by contrast, were mostly portrayed as already living quieter, more settled lives with a smaller circle of relationships. Their missed activities rarely appeared beyond family visits or coffee gatherings. These images suggested that social isolation hurt young people most, while older people were affected mainly as recipients of care, not as active participants with their own rich social worlds.

Who gained, who lost, and what felt fair

Debates changed again when vaccines arrived. Prioritising older people for early doses was defended as medically and morally reasonable, yet media stories increasingly highlighted a new imbalance. Older adults began to appear as lively retirees returning to travel and cultural events, while younger people waited longer for protection and for the reopening of their social and economic lives. Articles started to cast young people as the true “losers” of the pandemic, burdened with mental strain and uncertain futures. Talk of a potential generational conflict emerged: had solidarity only ever gone in one direction, from young to old, with too little in return?

The hidden trap in age-based stories

Looking across these phases, the authors show that media narratives repeatedly set “the young” and “the old” in sharp contrast: active versus passive, free versus restricted, forgotten versus privileged. Even when the tone was caring or admiring, such simplified images turned complex lives into fixed types, pushing everyone into either youth or old age and largely ignoring the middle years. This “us versus them” framing mirrors deeper patterns in society, where one group is treated as the norm and others as different or lesser. Ironically, calls for solidarity that rely on these age-based opposites can strengthen the very stereotypes and divisions they claim to fight.

Rethinking togetherness between generations

The article concludes that intergenerational solidarity cannot rest on clichés about helpless elders and carefree youth. Instead, it argues for seeing ageing as a shared journey we all walk, at different stages, over a lifetime. From this view, supporting one another is not a one-way duty but a mutual commitment rooted in our common human condition. The authors also call for recognising the wide variety of situations within each age group: not all young people are thriving, and not all older people are secure or content. By moving beyond simple age labels and listening to this diversity, societies can build forms of solidarity that truly connect generations and remain robust in future crises, from pandemics to climate change.

Citation: Steckdaub-Muller, I., Pfaller, L., Schweda, M. et al. Age stereotypes in appeals for intergenerational solidarity: disentangling the paradox. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 13, 234 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-06113-y

Keywords: intergenerational solidarity, age stereotypes, COVID-19 media, ageism, social justice