Being a Xillenial has taught me that age doesn’t make you old, some people are just born that way. Some of my younger, fully-millenial siblings were basically born old. Others age and don’t get old in the process. I hope that I’m in the second category.
Not as a rule. Most people don’t change their political leanings, but if they do, you are right, they are more likely to go from liberal to conservative than conservative to liberal.
Folk wisdom has long held that people become more politically conservative as they grow older, although several empirical studies suggest political attitudes are stable across time. Using data from the Michigan Youth-Parent Socialization Panel Study, we analyze attitudinal change over a major portion of the adult life span. We document changes in party identification, self-reported ideology, and selected issue positions over this time period and place these changes in context by comparing them with contemporaneous national averages. Consistent with previous research but contrary to folk wisdom, our results indicate that political attitudes are remarkably stable over the long term. In contrast to previous research, however, we also find support for folk wisdom: on those occasions when political attitudes do shift across the life span, liberals are more likely to become conservatives than conservatives are to become liberals, suggesting that folk wisdom has some empirical basis even as it overstates the degree of change.
Don’t I know it. The kids I went to school with are saying the stupidest things – and we took the same classes!! I can’t explain it.
Delayed onset mental deterioration caused by a decade or two of exposure to leaded gasoline.
I’m GenX and I think I’m mostly lead, plastic, and Styrofoam at this point.
I can’t speak for your class, but the problem with mine is meth brain.
Nice
Being a Xillenial has taught me that age doesn’t make you old, some people are just born that way. Some of my younger, fully-millenial siblings were basically born old. Others age and don’t get old in the process. I hope that I’m in the second category.
And millenials will be in 15 years, then genZ in another 15… As generations get older, they tend to shift to the right.
Not as a rule. Most people don’t change their political leanings, but if they do, you are right, they are more likely to go from liberal to conservative than conservative to liberal.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/706889
This was true with Boomers, but has not been with later generations.