A discussion of Millenials in the Christian Science Monitor:

But Twenge and others are wildly mistaken about the Millennial generation – those born since the early 1980s. No matter what teens say on surveys, there is scant evidence that they act more selfishly. In fact, the trends in youth behavior support the opposite conclusion – that Millennials have much greater regard for one another, their parents, and the community than Generation Xers or baby boomers had at the same phase of life.

Some notes:

• This is an important lesson about surveys and revealed preferences. Survey questions only work if you have reason to believe people will respond honestly (why questions about race don’t work) and the questions you’re asking actually measure what you want (which is much more frequent). The crime data shows how people are actually behaving, not how they answer silly questions about their personality.
• Why are there always sky-is-falling predictions about the next generation, especially when in general, things keep getting better? Cut the kids some slack, as much as you try to say that you were different, you were just like them when you were young.
• More specifically, whats with the boomers and trying to put all the negative attributes of their generation (selfishness, antipathy towards parents, sex and drug use) onto the newest generation, despite the fact that all the evidence says Millenials are totally unlike the boomers (similar to how boomers weren’t like their parents).

Categories: America, Community, Polling