New Survey Finds Millennials Much More Intolerant Than Boomers
A new survey of 2,000 demographically representative adults who were asked 51 worldview questions found Millennials are the least tolerant Americans and the most likely to seek revenge.
Dr. George Barna, Director of Research, Cultural Research Center, Arizona Christian University (Screenshot from Facebook).
Most congressional staffers are members of the Millennial and Baby Buster generation, with the Millennials tending to be in higher-level positions such as legislative directors.
The younger Busters are most often found in positions such as press assistant and legislative assistant.
Among the survey’s most controversial findings are these:
- Despite their well-known advocacy of “tolerance,” Millennials emerged from the survey as the generation that is the least tolerant — by their own admission — of people who possess different views than they do.
- Millennials are 15 percentage points less likely than Gen Xers to say they treat other people the same way they want to be treated, and are 28 points less likely than Baby Boomers to embrace that approach (known to Christians as the “Golden Rule”).
- Millennials are also twice as likely as other people to say that the kind of people they always respect are those who hold the same religious and political views as they do.
- Further, Millennials also stood out as the generation that is most likely to acknowledge that they are “committed to getting even” with those who wrong them — in fact, 28 percentage points more likely than Baby Boomers to hold a vengeful point of view.
- Millennials indicated that they have less respect for life, in general. For instance, they are less than half as likely as other adults to say that life is sacred.
- They are twice as likely to diminish the value of human life by describing human beings as either “material substance only” or their very existence as “an illusion.”
- Millennials increasingly — and robustly — reject the Christian faith, with only 2 percent possessing a biblically based worldview. They are also discarding the most basic American values, such as respect for others and obligations of civic engagement.
The survey is conducted by noted survey researcher Dr. George Barna on behalf of the Cultural Research Center (CRC) at Arizona Christian University. The survey has a maximum sampling error of plus or minus two percent, with a 95 percent confidence interval.
Millennials are those Americans born between 1984 and 2002, while Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964 and Elders includes living individuals born before 1946 and still living. The survey also measured worldviews of Baby Busters (also known as Gen X), those born between the Boomer and Millennial generations.
“The significantly divergent worldview perspectives and applications of the four generations—especially how different the Millennials are from all of their predecessors— suggests a nation that is at war with itself to adopt new values, lifestyles, and a new identity,” Barna said in a statement.
“The data also point out that America is losing its spiritual unity at a rapid pace,” Barna continued. “Even a rudimentary understanding of the foundations of the American republic reminds us that, unless the United States maintains spiritual unity under the hand of God, we will not be able to sustain the freedoms that have made this nation unique and desirable.
“The heart and soul of the nation pursue other gods and beliefs to our detriment as a nation. And a nation with an influential — and, indeed, its largest — generation reflecting indifference toward the overall health and well-being of the nation is one flirting with cultural decline.”
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Mark,
I read your comment on Instapundit:
“But here’s a question for us: Should we Baby Boomers put a hold on our tut-tutting, since we raised the Millennials and allowed the public school system and the media-driven culture to inculcate values like intolerance of contrary opinions?”
I’ve often thought of that myself. The current millennial attitudes and intolerant norms did not develop out of a vacuum. They had to be taught and cultivated.
We raised a “tolerant millennial”, by choice. It wasn’t easy and she didn’t always agree. But when it came time for graduation from high school, she was ready to face The World, and we provided the safety net. She finished college in 4 years, worked 2 jobs, had he own apartment the last two years of college and had a job before that summer was over. She’s been teaching special needs children for 3 years now.
Mark,
I read your comment on Instapundit:
“But here’s a question for us: Should we Baby Boomers put a hold on our tut-tutting, since we raised the Millennials and allowed the public school system and the media-driven culture to inculcate values like intolerance of contrary opinions?”
I’ve often thought of that myself. The current millennial attitudes and intolerant norms did not develop out of a vacuum. They had to be taught and cultivated.
[…] That Has Always Been My Experience New Survey Finds Millennials Much More Intolerant Than Boomers […]
Why did the older generations fail so badly at raising moral children?
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I must agree with Geoff.
My generation failed to hold true to the values taught us. We failed to teach those values to our children. We did, however, teach them how to over consume, how to disrespect their elders, and how to take what they want whenever they want it.
They reflect what they were taught.
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I have found this to be true. Millennials are the first to accuse anyone who has different religious or political beliefs than they hold of being intolerant but they won’t even allow a civil exchange of opinions on a college campus if they disagree with someone. I’ve also noticed they are only tolerant of some things. They are fine with religion as long as it isn’t Christianity. As far as their not respecting others and not valuing life, I think a lot of this is because they were raised to be entitled narcissists who think the world revolves around them and no one else matters. I’m glad I’m old because I hate to see what our country is becoming.