Youth Consciousness, Intergenerational Conflict, and American Political Behavior

• In Event: Public Opinion Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

Prominent theories have argued that affective feelings toward political parties, religious, gender, racial/ethnic, and even regional groups shape individuals’ political behavior. However, a question about youth as a group has been left out of consideration. This paper asks, how do perceptions toward young people shape political attitudes? Expanding upon social identity frameworks, my theory of youth consciousness argues that young people’s perceived shared interests and values with members of their age in-group shape public opinion that disproportionately affect youth. In addition, I further the concept of intergenerational solidarity, which argues that older adults’ perceived favorability with young people drives time-sensitive public opinion. I test my theoretical expectations by operationalizing these concepts with novel survey measures to show that youth consciousness and intergenerational solidarity are associated with views toward healthcare legislation that extends coverage for young adults; climate change policy, an issue that youth will have to disproportionately burden the long-term impact of; and support for progressive parties and leaders that fight for youth-related platforms. Original experiments demonstrate how tying policy outcomes to the young make youth consciousness and intergenerational solidarity an even stronger predictor of public opinion. The paper concludes by noting how this youth-centered heuristic serves as an understudied but important group-based indicator for American political behavior.

Author

• Nathan Kar Ming Chan, University of California, Irvine