Generation Effects on Americans’ Symbolic Ideology and Attitudes Toward the Economic Role of Government

Many existing reports and studies based on a single cross-section of survey data indicate that Millennials and Generation Z are more liberal than preceding generations. However, purely cross-sectional data are unable to differentiate between age effects, period effects, and generation or cohort effects. Pooling 23 General Social Surveys (GSS) cross-sections across the years 1983-2021, we apply contemporary age-period-cohort (APC) modeling techniques to differentiate these effects as they pertain to both symbolic ideology and operational economic ideology. We find greater support for age effects and period (i.e., survey year) effects than generation effects, calling into question the conventional wisdom on the liberalism of these recent generations. Our evidence is more consistent with an aging process in which Americans, regardless of generation, become more symbolically and economically conservative across their life course. Our results also reinforce doubts about the conventional, contemporary classification scheme for generations in the United States.