People Become More Liberal With Age

[Pilgrim's Progeny]

People Become More Liberal With Age - AOL News

People Become More Liberal With Age
By Clara Moskowitz,
By LIVESCIENCE.COM
Posted: 2008-03-11 14:15:50
Filed Under: Elections News
LiveScience.com


(March 10) - The stereotype of a cranky old man, set in his ways, getting more conservative by the day, is an enduring one. But new research has debunked the myth that people become more conservative as they age.

By comparing surveys of various age groups taken over a span of more than 30 years, sociologists found that in general, Americans' opinions veer toward the liberal as they grow older.


"All the evidence we have found refutes the idea that as people age their attitudes become more conservative or more rigid," said Nicholas Danigelis, a sociologist at the University of Vermont. "It's just not true. More people are changing in a liberal direction than in a conservative direction."

Danigelis and collaborators Stephen Cutler of the University of Vermont and Melissa Hardy of Pennsylvania State University analyzed data from the U.S. General Social Surveys of 46,510 Americans between 1972 and 2004. While the surveys did not provide data for the same individuals at different stages, they represented snapshots of the changing attitudes of respondents in different age cohorts over time. The researchers corrected for the fact that the age groups at different survey times are made of up new members with unique baseline opinions.

The surveys assessed attitudes on politics, economics, race, gender, religion and sexuality issues. In some cases, such as racial issues and questions of civil liberties for communists, the researchers measured a greater change toward liberalism in older people than in younger people.

"What we believe has happened, at least for the race relations, is that the older group, starting out at a position of significantly more negative feelings, had further to go," Danigelis told LiveScience.

If people really become more liberal as they age, why does common wisdom hold the opposite to be true?

People might find an average 60-year-old to be more conservative than an average 30-year-old, Danigelis said, but beware of extrapolating a trend. The older person, for example, might have started off even more conservative than he or she is now.

Danigelis also blamed the misconception on pervasive negative attitudes toward the elderly in our country, and stereotypes that depict seniors as rigid, ornery and set in their ways.

"If you look at any greeting cards about getting older you’ve got a wonderful lecture about age stereotypes," he said. "My colleague continues to cut out cartoons about getting old and trying to teach old dogs new tricks."

Danigelis said politicians and pundits should try to steer clear of stereotypes in the upcoming election.

"The assumption that older voters are stuck their ways of thinking or are likely to go with a conservative candidate and are not open to new information — I think there's a lot of information to suggest that that’s not going to happen," he said.

He urged people to judge John McCain, the 71-year-old Republican nominee for president, on his politics rather than his age.

"Age will be an issue in the campaign, as will race and gender, which is unfortunate," Danigelis said. "Maybe this is the campaign to knock down a bunch of stereotypes."

The study was published in the October 2007 issue of the journal American Sociological Review.

In the future, the researchers hope to investigate whether similar trends occur in other cultures and societies.

"There are international surveys that might allow you to do a similar study," Danigelis said. "Our gut feeling is yes but we haven’t tested that and we hope to."

Is it age or the age we live in?

 

[Pergamum]

Hmmm....gov't money for old folks I am sure helps them trust in the gov't more.

Social security a factor?

Senility and dementia linked with liberalism? Perhaps.

 

[VictorBravo]

"All the evidence we have found refutes the idea that as people age their attitudes become more conservative or more rigid,"

So I wonder what they were measuring, conservativism or rigidity?

I know some pretty rigid old liberals.

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

Pergy says:

Hmmm....gov't money for old folks I am sure helps them trust in the gov't more.

"I have been young, and now I am old; but I have never been liberal!"

UM--I mean:

Psalm 37:25
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

In my humble opinion--As we age, by God's grace, we should become more dependant on Him, more grounded on truth, and more set in our conservative ways!

 

[Pilgrim's Progeny]

I think it is telling that many peolpe in the past have been conservative because it was accepted and expected. Today, liberalism is more accepted and even expected.

Today's times are like a thresher's floor, as the winds of liberalism blow we find there is more chaff than expected.

 

[DMcFadden]

As I near the end of being middle aged (54/60), it would seem that my convictions are more conservative, both politically and theologically, than they were at 21.

As for dementia, 50% of folks experience some form of dementia by the time they are 85. It is NOT normal aging any more than cancer is. However, the longer you live, the greater your probability of becoming demented. Some of the research on dementia has suggested that if we can delay the onset of dementia by a few years, mortality tables will take care of the rest.

 

[kvanlaan]

Today's times are like a thresher's floor, as the winds of liberalism blow we find there is more chaff than expected.

/

 

[Zenas]

You get made fun of for not being liberal. My how the "open-mindedness" is abandoned when it's no longer convenient.

 

[Mushroom]

My own father, a lifelong gov't employee, started out as a conservative redneck Texan who, thanks to required sensitivity training and other programming from his employer, became a flaming lib in his old age. He was more than most likely unregenerate and the desire to advance trumped any real consideration of his theological or political positions. That process was complete by the time of the Clinton vs Dole election, when I teased him about how things had changed since now he was voting for the dope smoker (Aah never exhaled... coff... coff) and I for the war hero.

The reality is that his entire mindset was dictated by his pocketbook. He took his political decisions based on who he thought would most benefit his bank account. Maybe that's part of the cause of any such trend.

 

[Zenas]

I had a friend in my heathen days who made a similar report. He was a Democrat, he said, because he was a lower-middle class working guy, and the Democrats were the ones who would give him healthcare, socialistic programs to help him out, things of that nature. He could have cared less about murdered children or the sin of homosexuality. All he was concerned with was who was going to give him money. The Democrats promise him money, so that's who he votes for.

 

[Mushroom]

I had a friend in my heathen days who made a similar report. He was a Democrat, he said, because he was a lower-middle class working guy, and the Democrats were the ones who would give him healthcare, socialistic programs to help him out, things of that nature. He could have cared less about murdered children or the sin of homosexuality. All he was concerned with was who was going to give him money. The Democrats promise him money, so that's who he votes for.

So it could be an entirely mercenary motivation. Or, maybe more appropriately, a parasitic one.

 

[Thomas2007]

Is it age or the age we live in?

The age we live in and this study is skewed by that. Of course, people who are thoroughly socialized by the time they turn middle aged will become more socialized as they get older and start feeling dependent. What else do they have to turn to?

 

[Zenas]

Brad,

Basically. The liberals are raising parasites that can do nothing else but vote for them because they depend on them. They pander to the godless with their atheism and amoralism with regard to marriage, homosexuality, and the murder of children, and to whomever will not follow them for those reasons, they just throw money at them.

They exploit the poor, plain and simple, by pretending to care about them.