Daniel Cox and Kelsey Eyre Hammond explore the significant impact of different views among people of different generations.
Americans’ attitudes about self-expression, morality, individuality, and religious practice continue to show substantial clefts across generations. Compared with older Americans, young adults (age 18–29) are more likely to embrace unrestrained self-expression and prioritize autonomy in personal behavior, even when it challenges social norms and cohesion. But divisions are increasingly appearing within generations, with young men and young women diverging over certain types of behavior. Young women grant a wider latitude to a variety of personal behaviors than young men do.
Older Americans tend to place greater emphasis on conformity, shared values, and moral restraint. While most young adults report being raised in affirming households by parents who thought they were unique or special, far fewer older Americans share this experience. Half of Americans over 50 say their parents thought of them as “average.”
The generational divide is evident in differing approaches to moral judgment and expressions of faith and spirituality. Younger adults, and particularly young women, are more likely to view behaviors such as abortion, casual sex, and open relationships as morally permissible. Older Americans are far more comfortable expressing disapprobation, including making unequivocal judgments about certain behaviors—condemning them as wrong in any situation. These generational differences are most evident regarding sexual behavior, however. Regarding alcohol consumption, young adults are more likely than older Americans to believe drinking is morally suspect, or wrong in most or all cases.
The growing emphasis on individuality and self-expression is redefining what Americans consider moral behavior while complicating shared understandings of right and wrong in families, schools, and religious communities.
Americans generally believe it is more important for children to learn ways they are similar to their peers and classmates to help them better get along with others than to emphasize how they are different. …
… There is widespread agreement on this point among the public, but younger Americans are much more likely to say emphasizing areas of difference should be prioritized.
