… Over the last two decades, numerous quantitative studies have attempted to measure and compare the attitudes, beliefs, values, behaviors, and personality traits of different generations. Some have found that the younger generation—X or Y, depending on the study date—is more environmentally and socially conscious, less materialistic, more community-minded and less cynical than the Boomers, while others have found the opposite.
Most of these studies are profoundly flawed—failing, for example, to account for the ways in which key concepts like community, environment, and politics have evolved since the longitudinal surveys were first formulated. [cont.]
Karen Foster, Saint Mary’s U. (Greater Good)