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People Become More Liberal With Age

By Clara Moskowitz,
By LIVESCIENCE.COM
Posted: 2008-03-11 14:20:48
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."

2008-03-11 09:13:32
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Recent Comments

1 - 10 of 845
845 comments

gabby7297 04:14:21 PM Mar 27 2008

Lets Get the American Votes to be counted.......There should be allowed as the Citizens already Cast a Vote there......... This petition and demand that the voters in Florida and Michigan be heard!......We need to have 10,000 signatures before we can take this to the COURTS.........Thanks.

www.ipetitions.com/petition/seatourdelegates/

shirllewis13 05:47:02 PM Mar 15 2008

AS PEOPLE AGE THEY DO BECOME MORE LIBERSAL WHICH MEANS ALTRUISTIC AND GENEROUS. SOME GET OLDER THEY REALIZE HOW SELFISHLY THEY HAVE SPENT THEIR LIVES. THAT IS WHAT CONSERVATIVE IS DEFINED AS.

shirllewis13 05:43:34 PM Mar 15 2008

WHEN WE AGE WE BECOME MORE LIBERAL WHICH MEANS ALTRUISTIC AND GENEROUS. TO BE CONSERVATIVE MEAN THAT YOU ARE SELF-ABSESSED AND SELFISH IN EVERY WAY. NOT A GOOD WAY TO BE.

robyrn 12:33:17 PM Mar 14 2008

Another BOGUS attempt of liberals to sway us their way. The research is Biased as is most everything the liberals do on this planet.

newjeff121 11:48:48 AM Mar 14 2008

Another brainless and misleading survey!

They define Conservative and Liberal by the standards of the Republican and Democratic Parties.

Both these Parties have betrayed their oaths to uphold the Constitution!
Both these Parties have systematically destroyed the Rights of The People!

Neither of these Parties should ever receive another vote ever again.

What have I become politically in my old age?
I am a Revolutionary in the same manner that Jefferson and Washington and Adams were Revolutionaries.

When it the course of human events it becomes necessary….

morninglry52 08:36:13 AM Mar 14 2008

I wonder how many 18-30 year olds took this poll?

Do you know? NO!! This is a bogus poll made up by political dreamers.

daniela707 04:52:45 PM Mar 13 2008

Lets Get the Votes to be counted.......NO re-vote, do-over and mail-in should be allowed as the Citizens already Cast a Vote there.........This petition and demand that the voters be heard!

www.ipetitions.com/petition/seatourdelegates/

rushechos 03:23:46 PM Mar 13 2008

>>> I don't know anyone who has become more liberal with age. <<<

Let me introduce myself. My name is Charlie.

I became more liberal with age.

Now you can't say you don't know anyone who has become more liberal with age.

rushechos 03:22:12 PM Mar 13 2008

>> Obama and everyone else but Hillary and Gravel dropped thier names off the Michigan ballot because the ballot was declared null and void. <<

I thought it was Dennis Kucinich, not Mike Gravel, that kept his name on the ballot.

rushechos 03:20:59 PM Mar 13 2008

Winston Churchill was wrong.

If you're not liberal at 25, you still have a heart.

If you're not conservative at 35, you still have a brain.

If you didn't have a heart and a brain you'd be a dead corpse drawing flies. Without a brain and a heart, you will die.

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