Clipped from UCLA’s Freshman Surveys: https://www.heri.ucla.edu/monographs/TheAmericanFreshman2016.pdf
If you follow generation Z news closely, you might have noticed a sudden increase in headlines that projects Generation Z as being more “socially conservative” than older generations. The finding, which claims that Generation Z are less open to same-sex marriage, gender fluidity and body adornments such as tattoos go back to a survey (actually a quiz) carried out by a British marketing company called The Gild. As many as 59% of respondents born after 2001 reported to belong to the ‘conservative’ or the ‘moderate’ categories against only 15 to 16 percent of Millennials and Generation X.
Having followed generational attitudes for almost a decade and a half myself, the findings fly in the face of most surveys and observations I have seen about Generation Z’s open-mindedness. I was curious and decided to find out how they got these results.
As soon as I landed on The Gild’s website I was invited to partake in the very same survey. No filter question to make sure I met sampling criteria or any other requirements were needed to participate. The Gild prepped my motivation by telling me: “Big Business and Governments are stereotyping you into one of six generational groups” and, “At The Gild, we think that’s wrong and needs to stop, so we’ve designed this Generation Quiz to prove or disprove our theory, and we need your help.” So as the freedom-loving, justice-seeking arm-chair activist I am, I was ready! I’d show those Big Businesses and Governments they can’t pigeonhole me or create mind-controlling Newspeak based on my generation or my preferences!
First I was asked to compare statements and pick the one from each category I agreed the most with. Since the statements were double-barreled and categories were overlapping, I had a hard time finding a statement that fit me. None of the 5 answer alternatives managed to capture my preferences and idiosyncrasies. But the biggest puzzle to me was: How do they get teenagers with 8-second attention spans to read through questions with five long winded answer alternatives like: “My main focus is on being fit and healthy, enjoying life and spending quality time with my family.”? Having designed a few nation-wide surveys aimed at this age cohort myself, I’ve learned to keep the butcher knife close, chopping up and eliminating even the tiniest part of bad meat from my sentences to accommodate this easily distracted target group.
As for the results? Of course my answers supported their claim that generational research is all bovine feces! I came out as a textbook Generation Z despite the fact that I am born right smack in the middle of Generation X. I guess I’m work-damaged from spending so much time trying to figure these kids out that I’ve become the pathetic mid-lifer who is reliving her own adolescence to the inevitable embarrassment of her own children.
But the funniest part was, when the survey was over I could just refresh the page and do it all over again! No IP address detector to block me from taking it twice. Even more, I was encouraged to share it over my social networks, ensuring that my echo-chamber could eliminate any tiny element of random selection mechanism that might have otherwise existed.
Garbage in, garbage out
They say you can lie with statistics, but I’d rather say, “Garbage in, garbage out”. Here’s why self-respecting media outlet wary of being associated with fake news might want to have a second look before they label this as “research”:
- If you make biased claims in the introduction, you will get biased answers. Any chance a typical respondent would want to prove the researchers right after their quite pointed intro? If you could stop the “Evil Empire” in their tracks by giving them slanted information, wouldn’t you? Can you envision a bunch of 12-year old pranksters who decided to use this survey to stir the fake news pot? I mean, especially since they were encouraged to go against the generational stereotypes in the introduction. Let’s toss objectivity out the window.
- Open surveys on the internet are not representative. Ensuring representative samples from a population is a professional skill. Only the people that landed on The Gild’s website or were recruited by their like-minded brethren were represented, meaning there are dark, black holes of skewness involved. If you can take the survey multiple times and are encouraged to share the quiz with your friends in social media? Well, now also representativeness gets tossed out the window.
- Double-barreled questions and overlapping answer categories. The issue of double-barreled questions refers to the fallacy of including more than one argument in the same statement. In other words, you have to agree to all the suggestions in the sentence, which will yield inaccurate answers. So to answer “How would you generally describe your views on issues such as same-sex marriage, transgender rights and marijuana legalisation?” you’d better agree or disagree on all accounts! Given that so many of the answer alternatives were overlapping, this problem could probably have been avoided by making sure all statements were mutually exclusive. So let survey design join the two aforementioned bullet points and get a good taste of the hard concrete outside the window!
And while we’re about it, let me repeat a premise I always mention to my clients and audiences: A single survey is never enough to assess a generational mindset. For one thing, there is no way to control cohort effects from age effects – a distinction you might remember from Introduction to Sociology classes. Because to discern whether an age difference is due to age or generation you have to compare longitudinal data. There are many other reasons, which I won’t mention here.
Fake News
I can’t help being reminded of those internet quizzes that tell you if your subconscious personality matches that of a golden retriever or a trapeze artist, and so I doubt if this particular survey was ever meant to be taken seriously. Andrew Mulholland, managing director at The Gild seems to make the argument that generational surveys in general are bogus, so it is hard to imagine they put in a lot of time with the survey design or took it very seriously. But seriously is how it has been received, even by the “non-fake” media. The Times, The Telegraph and The Daily News are just some of print news media that buy into this new “fact” that Generation Z is more conservative. Who knows? Maybe they are, but this internet quiz doesn’t prove it.
Generational differences do exist as an independent variable and is at least partially responsible for differences between people. And this is important because of the sheer volume of people who are going through the same life changes at the same time. But to get trustworthy answers you have to consider your sources. This is why there are consultants who have spent more than the famous 10,000 hours to become experts in this field. It is THAT complex, and a simple internet quiz cannot change it.
14 comments. Leave new
Anne, this is excellent! Generational theory is useful and powerful when it is applied rigorously–but harmful when it’s used in the way you describe. GOOD observations! Thanks!
Thanks Amy! I agree wholeheartedly with your comments. Sadly in the age of fake news, validating sources seems to happen less often.
Hey Amy! I’ve got a liberal blog as well, if you want to see it! It’s called atovertherock..WordPress.com, where it covers the current affairs of trump
Um, well… As a member of Gen Z, I am more “conservative” than my elder siblings. More open to gay marriage or whatever. Individuals should be unheeded by the government, but you’re only looking at one part of what it means to be conservative. Liberal economics is frankly horrible. We’ve watched people spend and go into debt and throw money at the issues like suddenly it’ll fix it once you hit that special number…and…it doesn’t work.
If you don’t hear us say it, could it possibly be because you don’t listen? The millennials have a bad habit of not allowing other opinions, and I only felt comfortable voicing mine as I hit adulthood. The politically correct climate drives myself, and all but 3 people in my peer group that I know to rebel in silence. When I stopped being silent, a person from my friend’s list reported my facebook(I used a name I intend to have changed legally). We find other ways.
We just don’t believe much anyone has to say because the way you vehemently reject all other views makes your outlook seem weak, authoritarian and lacking.
Millennials don’t know how to let others have fun. Fun isn’t cookie cutter. Conservatism in the sense of right wing economics is counter-culture. And as for all of the gender issues, I don’t really think most of it holds much water, but I don’t care to tell someone else what they can and can’t do. The government should just stay out entirely.
The government should stay out of most things. I also reject your drone wars and pretending that things are okay when they aren’t. Contrarily, however, I reject your hysterics. Instead of dressing obscenely, and throwing fits like I used to as a child not too long ago, maybe you should handle your problems like adults. Millennials are the worst example of how to handle things not going your way. I very vaguely remember 9/11 and if the people on that flight had handled themselves the way you all reacted to a cheeto, we’d be in even worse shape.
I do disagree with people just agreeing with everything they read, however. And thusly I appreciate your counter voice to the narrative that we all HAVE to be conservative(while it’s a trend, the term is also being applied wrongly). What do you expect though? That’s sort of what the millennials grew up doing. Trusting “big brother”.
I voted for Trump.
I just turned 20.
1996.
California born and raised.
Praise Kek lmao.
Obviously this is all anecdotal, but at this point aside from some inadequately sized surveys there’s not much else. I’m the oldest pretty much that we have to offer right now.
Sorry for any inconsistencies in my spelling/grammar. I stumbled across this after an 18 hour gaming session and I’m falling asleep.
As another Gen Z’er (same age too!), this sounds like a very isolated experience. Your political beliefs and those that you keep in your peer group may have less to do with generational shifts and more to do with the fact that you’re having 18 hour gaming sessions and willingly spout memes like ‘praise kek’, lol.
Be aware of your own bubbles, everyone.
Thanks for the response to the survey, Anne. The original survey results are constantly being shared online among an audience that has very little experience with analytics and much more of a bias (myself, included) so it’s great to see a good non-political response.
I think you may have the terms “liberal economics” and “right wing economics” confused. Economic liberalism, which is primarily about free trade and opposition to additional regulations, is something that has been emblematic of modern political conservatism for quite some time now and has been advocated hardest by Republicans in the United States for a very long time. What I think you mean by “right wing economics” is the more populist slant of protectionism and opposition to free trade, and what I think you mean by “liberal economics” are the more socialist/social democratic aspects of the welfare state, unions, and government healthcare, among other things. What you probably mean and the terms you are using are not lining up.
Shiny, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I enjoy reading your perspective and interpretation of various political issues and how you feel Gen Z might differ from Millennials.
If you read my article carefully you will see that I am criticizing the survey method, not whether or not Generation Z’s political preferences could sway in the other direction. And you are right in that if you go into the granularity, younger generations aren’t necessarily adopting the liberalism of their parents and grandparents. Many in fact identify as independent. It is also true that there is a large quite conservative minority among your generation and I believe these are the ones who are most adamant in rejecting my article. But being visible does not ensure majority in the population. If you look at what younger generations voted in the last election they overwhelmingly voted for Clinton.
I am not trying to forward any specific political agenda, but make constructive commentary on survey techniques and generational research methods. And having researched this generation for over a decade and read hundreds of research reports, carrying out several surveys myself, most of the evidence points in the other direction. The vast majority points in the direction of Generation Z being more liberal than the older generations.
One last important distinction. Based on your age you would actually be considered both Generation Z and Millennial by many researchers. The cohort confusion comes from the fact that two different kinds of generational parameters are often intermingled and confused by the media. The authors that came up with the term ‘Millennial’ presumed Millennials would be born until 2004. Hence in many of the surveys your cohort would come up as Millennials, and this cohort have proven to be more socially and, in many cases, economically liberal.
You might also find this exchange on Quora interesting:https://www.quora.com/Is-generation-Z-more-conservative-than-previous-generations-Why-or-why-not
One thing is for sure, your generation seems to be much more politically engaged than we Generation X were at the same age 🙂
I’m from 96 and if the new conservatives are the ones that follow the scum of Milo and all those alt-right freaks I highly doubt that would make an entire generation. Yeah, I’m as socially liberal as a norwegian but I do think we should embrace capitalism, not like americans view it but more in an european way. Millenials make lots of mistakes like the famous Safe Spaces which in the real world don’t work at all, but that doesn’t mean I want to have religion and homophobia like in previous generations. In fact, I think that my generation, even conservatives, are starting to leave religion aside in bigger numbers.
Sebastian, I apologize for this very late reply! My comment section has been inundated with spam. And you are right. I think Gen Z is trying to bring in a common-sensical attitude that some mistake for representing a political leaning.
Btw the stats for the survey came from 2000 individuals surveyed separately from the online poll, as is stated in the picture of the stats that all the sites use. The online poll is there so people can see how they line up with their 400 representatives from their generation.
Also Generation Z is bomb! XD
Fact Checking, I wrote the article precisely because it didn’t make reference to a different sample than the self-recruited one they collected at their site. Had they based it on a valid sample and strived for statistical reliability they would have to mention how the sample was drawn, level of statistical significance, confidence intervals etc. The director didn’t even have faith in his own focus of study here, something he clearly admitted. They have since taken the page down and I can no longer see a single reference to the survey anywhere on their site. If you have evidence to the contrary, please feel free to post it here.
Your penultimate statement I think is notably telling. I was incredulous of the claim and I wanted to fact check that and I had difficulty finding the survey, and I too found nothing, even after searching for “gen z site:the-gild.com” in the search bar. I wish it was still up and that they gave additional methodology information, but it appears to have been wiped from their site.
Oh Anne Boysen, please stop with your condescending demeanor. Your statement that the study “fl[ies] in the face of most surveys and observations I have seen about Generation Z’s open-mindedness” begins to show your bias- and it’s within the first few sentences.
In all reality, Generation Z’s view of ‘open-mindedness’ is quite different from the forced politics of your generation. We refuse to allow our country be brainwashed by pervasive non experimental and harmful opinions of the Millenial generation. As Shiny pointed out our generation is beginning to become extremely conservative. I’ve seen it in my schools, I’ve seen it through my peers. We have been forced to sit down and shut up to allow for a more “welcoming” society that in all reality is all but welcoming to real intellectual conversations, debate, and differing view points.
During my first year of University I was quiet so that I would not lose my reputation at the University however I refuse to have my voice squashed by the Millenials who are oh so welcoming towards minorities- so long as these minorities have the same views as them.
Generation Z is more conservative than Generation Y regardless of if you want to believe it or not. Our conservative views will only allow the United States to progress regardless of the push back we face.
Apparently you didn’t learn what “ipso facto” meant at university. If you did, you would be smart enough to understand that the fact that something is biased doesn’t make it inaccurate. You would also know that your personal anecdotes do not comprise reality. And while Gen Z is more conservative on some issues (like financial or risk averse behaviors), they are much less so on issues of gender (more pro LGBT), racial equity (more critical of systemic discrimination), drug legalization, and climate change (not only more inclined to believe/understand it, but to believe it’s a serious problem).