Exploring What MilleniGenz Think About Range of Social Issues

Abstract

It has long been accepted that young adults are more socially and politically liberal than the middle-aged or elderly. It is also accepted that as a generational cohort ages, its views become more conservative. But does this piece of received wisdom apply to MillenigenZ? It is well documented that MillenigenZ are far more liberal on political and social issues than older generations. What is less certain is whether this leftward lean will persist as the MillenigenZ age or whether they will go through the same rightward shift as members of Generation X, the Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation did before them. In this study, we address this question in two ways. First, we examine differences in MillenigenZ’s attitudes on a range of social and political issues between two waves of a survey. Second, we compare the attitudes of the youngest members of the MillenigenZ generational cohort to those of the oldest to see whether there are intra-generational differences. Our findings suggest that MillenigenZ are not getting more conservative as they age and, from the youngest to the oldest, remain remarkably uniform in their left-leaning social and political attitudes. Findings from this study advance our understanding of not only this generation but also how generations change over time.