Why people become more conservative over the years

"Who in his youth was not a revolutionary - he has no heart, and who in maturity did not become a conservative - he has no brains" - this phrase in various variations are attributed to François Guizot, Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill, and it belongs, apparently, to a French lawyer Ansel Batby.

The older people get, the more oftenPeltzman S. Political Ideology over the Life Course they vote for conservative politicians. Especially the adherence to traditional views is increasingTruett K. R. Age differences in conservatism. Personality and Individual Differences after 50 years. Moreover, it is not limited only to the political position. You may have noticed how, having matured, you began to treat adolescents with greater caution: you do not understand their culture, do not share them. valuesdisagree with their motives.

Let's see if people really become more conservative with age and why this happens.

How a person's personality can change with age

Throughout life, a person gains new experiences and rethinks their beliefs. Our character and worldview are not monolithic: they changeDonnellan M. B., Lucas R. E. Age differences in the Big Five across the life span: evidence from two national samples. Psychology and aging with time.

To study them, psychologists use the five-factorThe Oxford Handbook of the Five Factor Model. Oxford University Press. 2017 personality model - "Big Five". The assessment is carried out according to the following criteria: extraversion, benevolence, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to new things.

AnalysisDonnellan M. B., Lucas R. E. Age differences in the Big Five across the life span: evidence from two national samples. Psychology and aging of these indicators in people of different years, I found that certain age-related changes are often traced in characters. So, by the age of 30, the majority of people have decreased extraversion, while benevolence and emotional stability, on the contrary, grow. But the most important thing is that after 30, the level of openness to new things and readiness to experiment begins to fall.

About a hundred studies demonstrateRoberts B. W., Walton K. E., Viechtbauer W. Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological bulletin similar findings, and according toCornelis I., Van Hiel A., Roets A., Kossowska M. Age differences in conservatism: evidence on the mediating effects of personality and cognitive style. Journal of personality Belgian scientists, this explains the conservatism of older people. Moreover, it is more about adherence to traditional values ​​in everyday life, and not about economic and political convictions. Older people also preferChamorro ‑ Premuzic T. Why Are Older People More Conservative? Psychology Todayspecifics abstract reflections, and old knowledge and beliefs are more important for them than new ones. They are also more likely to experience the stress of change.

It should be noted here that changes in worldview are very individual. ResearchPeterson J. C., Smith K. B., Hibbing J. R. Do People Really Become More Conservative as They Age? The Journal of Politics the same political preferences show that the likelihood of strengthening conservative views is higher among those who have already changed their beliefs during their life. That is, a conservative who has become a liberal is more likely to return to old positions with age.

Why the older generation is more inclined towards conservatism

Researchers mainly cite two reasons.

There are many stereotypes around age

As shown by a survey conducted in 26 countries, including Russia,Chan W., Mccrae R. R., De Fruyt F., et al. Stereotypes of age differences in personality traits: universal and accurate?. Journal of personality and social psychology, in different cultures there are exactly the same stereotypes about age groups. Namely:

• adolescents are impulsive, trusting and undisciplined;
• middle-aged people are conscientious, distrustful and more organized;
• older people are calm, friendly, less active, and the most conservative of all.

The reason for this is in the well-established ideas about the social roles of a person: schoolchildren, students, parents, grandparents. We not only projectWood D., Roberts B. W. The effect of age and role information on expectations for big five personality traits. Personality & social psychology bulletin them on others, but we ourselves adjustWood D., Gosling S. D., Potter J. Normality evaluations and their relation to personality traits and well-being. Journal of personality and social psychology under them their behavior, trying not to fall out of the "norm".

Some scientists believe that with age, a person loses Stewart B. D., von Hippel W., Radvansky G. A. Age, race, and implicit prejudice: Using process dissociation to separate the underlying components. Psychological Science the ability to resist stereotypes due to a general weakening of mental acuity. For example, older people have higher racial bias scores on implicit association tests and are better at remembering stories with a similar plot. And the Belgian researchers cameHiel A., Brebels L. Conservatism is good for you: Cultural conservatism protects self-esteem in older adults. Personality and Individual Differences concluded that conservatism is usually combined with high self-esteem in older people.

Other studies do suggest the opposite: that over the years, on the contrary, we have less prejudice about race, gender, age, and so on. So in the articleDanigelis N. L., Hardy M., Cutler S. J. Population Aging, Intracohort Aging, and Sociopolitical Attitudes. American Sociological Review, published in the American Sociological Review, cites data from the US General Social Survey. According to them, in 2004 the respondents were more liberal about the distribution household chores in family and race relations, compared to 1972. How society and the processes occurring in it affect this is still a big question.

Society is changing rapidly and the generation gap is widening

When people talk about conservatism of older people, they often do not take into account the difference between generations. This is incorrect, since the conditional generation of baby boomers (people born in 1946-1964) grew upChamorro ‑ Premuzic T. Why Are Older People More Conservative? Psychology Today in completely different conditions, with different morals and moral norms than, for example, buzzers (born in 1997-2012).

The human value system is largely formed in youth. At the same time, progress and social changes are accelerating more and more.Exponential Laws of Computing Growth. Communications of the ACM. And in this case, the emergence of serious differences can be observed even between chronologically close to each other generations.

Therefore, there is nothing strange that older people seem to us more conservative, because they were born and raised in more conservative the world. And in it they are most likelyChamorro ‑ Premuzic T. Why Are Older People More Conservative? Psychology Todaywere "revolutionaries".

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Disputes between generations are as old as human history. We cannot know what views older people would hold if their youth passed in a more liberal era.

Of course, statistics from psychometric research do not apply to every individual. Worldview, character - all these are individual traits that will differ from person to person. There is an opinionChamorro ‑ Premuzic T. Why Are Older People More Conservative? Psychology Todaythat people with age become, as it were, a concentrated version of themselves. That is, all our qualities are manifested in all their glory over the years. Perhaps the same applies to conservatism, for the time being hidden deep within us.