Dr Hannah Swift

About

Hannah is an experienced researcher in ageism, attitudes to age, age-friendly and dementia-friendly communities, workplaces and design, prejudice, discrimination, equality, unconscious bias, intergenerational contact, nudging, diversity and arts based interventions.

She has worked with the following bodies:

Centre for Ageing Better
Age UK (national and local)
Department for Work and Pensions
Government Office for Science
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Learning through Landscapes
Thrive
ComRes
Equally Ours
NatCen
Kent County Council
Thanet District Council
Canterbury City Council
Centre for Policy on Ageing.
Hannah has contributed to the All Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry into Intergenerational Connection and Social Integration, and the Select Committee on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision.

She is skilled in quantitative, experimental and survey methods.

Research interests

Hannah uses a range of (mostly quantitative) research methods to investigate processes of ageism, people's attitudes to age and the effects of age stereotypes, which have important practical and policy implications. She uses experimental research methods to investigate the detrimental impact of age stereotypes that denote older people as incompetent on (a) older people’s cognitive and physical functioning and (b) decision making processes, such as hiring.

Hannah helped develop a National Barometer of Prejudice (see projects and publications) and applied multilevel modelling techniques to the 2008-9 European Social Survey data to explore the impact of experiences of ageism and attitudes to age on well-being. She has an interest in using 'real world observational data' to explore how ageism manifests in everyday life. Hannah is also interested in exploring the impact of positive attitudes to age and conditions that contribute to healthy, active and successful ageing.

Teaching

SP817 Current Issues in Social and Applied Psychology II :Applications
SP863 Advanced Topics in Business Psychology

Professional

Member of the COST action on Ageism (2014-2018)
Member of EURAGE (The European Research Group on Attitudes to Age)
Regular public speaker