A study found that over the last ten years, while other age groups were relatively unchanged, for the 16-39 year old age group, the personality scores for conscientiousness, extroversion, and agreeableness plummeted dramatically, while neuroticism shot upward. But why?
Every old generation seems to complain about the failings of the “new generation,” how “kids these days got no respect,” “young people don’t have a sense of responsibility,” and the like. We need to take that with a grain of salt. The old generation used to be a new generation and was subject to the same complaints.
Now, though, some data has emerged that seems to suggest that we really are facing some generational problems today. The Understanding America Study conducted by the Center for Economic and Social Research at the University of Southern California looked at five attributes of personality. These are long-established traits used by psychologists in psychometric models:
Burn-Murdoch writes that conscientiousness, “the quality of being dependable and disciplined,” appears to be the most determinative trait for living well. “Of all personality types, conscientious people tend to fare best on a number of key measures. They live the longest, have the most career success and are less likely to go through divorce. They even manage to hold down a job during recessions.”
Unfortunately, conscientiousness is also the personality attribute that has fallen the most, especially among young adults. A comprehensive study shows that “people in their twenties and thirties in particular report feeling increasingly easily distracted and careless, less tenacious and less likely to make and deliver on commitments.”
Also way down for young people in particular is agreeableness, a measure of politeness and compassion that indicates how kind and cooperative we are. Extroversion, which measures our aptitude for social interaction, has fallen across all age groups, but young people especially. The only personality trait that is up among young adults is neuroticism, a tendency toward negative emotions like anger and sadness, which is “a function of the much-discussed increase in anxiety.”
Why are young adults today so “easily distracted and careless” and “less tenacious”? Why are they so impolite, uncompassionate, unkind, and uncooperative? Why are they so bad at social interaction? Why are they so neurotic, angry, sad, and anxious?
One obvious culprit is technology. Colby Hall at Mediaite has no doubt about that, going so far as to write a fulminating article entitled Alarming New Study Finds Smartphones Ruining Our Brains at Unprecedented Speed. He writes,
In less than 15 years, we’ve tethered billions of brains to an always-on, infinitely stimulating “meta-world” — a hybrid of the broader digital ecosystem, the AI-powered feed that tells you what is conventionally known, and social media platforms that distort reality by promoting the loudest, most self-promotional sliver of humanity. This is not a tool for quiet reflection; it’s a behavioral slot machine that lives in your hand.
And the cost is attention. Not just “I get distracted sometimes” attention, but the deep, sustained focus that conscientiousness requires. The skill of delaying gratification, resisting impulse, and staying the course is being replaced by an addiction to novelty, validation, and stimulation. The more we indulge, the less we can resist indulging — and the chart’s freefalling red line for young adults shows exactly where that road leads.
Technology is surely a factor, maybe the major factor. But personality is shaped by lots of other things. I wonder whether there are any mega-trends in parenting or lack of parenting that might have contributed to these neuroses. What might be the effect of school culture and progressive education? Have universities played a role in making their graduates hopeless and nihilistic? I think a big factor might be the overall decline in religion among this cohort and their families, which has very likely led to declines in self-discipline, kindness, relationships with others, and the sense that their lives have meaning.
I have seen these characteristics in young adults I’ve known as a college professor. And yet, to be honest, I haven’t noticed these traits in homeschooled or classically-educated young adults or confessionally Christian young people.
Quite the contrary. They tend to be very conscientious, very agreeable, and with few exceptions not neurotic. They are not necessarily extroverted, any more than I am. I’m not sure what the psychometric people mean by “openness,” a trait not mentioned in these reports. Evidently, 16-39 year olds as a whole don’t have a problem with openness, which these social scientists consider to be a good thing. I suspect they may be too open, which could lead to some of the other dysfunctions.
No wonder this troubled generation is starting to return to religion.
Illustration: Psychology Identity by kalhh via Creazilla, Public Domain
Source: The Personality Collapse
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