People Become More Liberal With Age

Source: AOL

March 10) - The stereotype of a cranky old man, set in his ways, getting more conservative by the day, is an enduring one. But new research has debunked the myth that people become more conservative as they age.

By comparing surveys of various age groups taken over a span of more than 30 years, sociologists found that in general, Americans' opinions veer toward the liberal as they grow older.

"All the evidence we have found refutes the idea that as people age their attitudes become more conservative or more rigid," said Nicholas Danigelis, a sociologist at the University of Vermont. "It's just not true. More people are changing in a liberal direction than in a conservative direction."

Danigelis and collaborators Stephen Cutler of the University of Vermont and Melissa Hardy of Pennsylvania State University analyzed data from the U.S. General Social Surveys of 46,510 Americans between 1972 and 2004. While the surveys did not provide data for the same individuals at different stages, they represented snapshots of the changing attitudes of respondents in different age cohorts over time. The researchers corrected for the fact that the age groups at different survey times are made of up new members with unique baseline opinions...


Read more: http://news.aol.com/story/_a/people-become-more-liberal-with-age/20080311091309990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

I haven't riled him up for a while but he always insists that there are no old liberals.

:rofl:

Yikes!

And those are not conservative programs.........

"If you aren't a Liberal when you are young you have no heart and if not a Conservative when old you have no brain" Or something along those lines may not be exact..

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/33/messages/738.html

And besides, by their definition liberal means supporting more free markets and capitalism.

But I am more liberal than I was in college, even though I was protesting Viet Nam and supporting McCarthy and then McGovern.

that's for sure....

ooops... nevermind. Most of them are dry drunks.

of the fact that the older one gets, the more knowledge one gains? I'm 50 and know a helluva lot more than I did when I was 25. It is just plain old logic. Us "older" folks have seen a lot and done a lot and have decided that maybe bigotry, war, out of control government, loss of personal freedoms, and so on are just not what America is supposed to be about. However, that doesn't neccessarily make one Liberal, just not neocon like. And by the way, Liberal is not a dirty word.

The older I got the more I learned the more the GOP did not make sense anymore.

still you would be surprised how conservative you can become if you spent a significant amount of your adult life in the military.

Takes awhile to unlearn some of the bad habits you pick up along the way (do not misconstrue that to mean that every thing that one learns on active duty is of a negative nature).

Go DU!!:patriot:

the "fact" that most people got more conservative as they aged. My wife's father was an old school bigot, and he came to really like, dare I even say...loved me, and was quite happy to see us become married. Sure, not everyone's mind improves with age, but I do believe most do. It ties in with that fact that hatred becomes less acceptable, and wanting your own grandchildren to have a better world, and the fact that you needed a helping hand as you age. It only seems natural. Glad I have always been one, it always just felt right to be liberal.

I voted GOP until 96. Have not since then.

And I started as more of a DLC type and am graduating to a died in the wool progressive.

I just do not see any other way out for this nation.

Thank you for DU!!:dem:

:yourock:

My mother in law grows more conservative as the days pass.....

Thanks for the thread, varun.

But could it be the times? How could any older person with a sense of self-preservation back a conservative agenda in these times? Any non-rich older person, that is!

I have noticed all the older people at our Democratic events. Often they are the most liberal people there. I have to admit that surprised me.

I have told my children that if I get more conservative as I age, they should call me on it. I don't want to abandon my principles. My oldest daughter says I have nothing to worry about. She thinks I lean more to the left with each passing year.

It is very true

It came back on the second poll re: politics minus the liberal answer...

eom

And realism correlates with liberalism.