James Davis
“Did growing up in the 1960s leave a permanent effect on attitudes and values?” James Davis asked last year in Public Opinion Quarterly, drawing on a body of research that dates back to the 70s. The answer, he found, is yes–but not to the degree that aging boomers might think.
JD: That’s the most important question this kind of social survey faces. Not many of the questions we ask can be checked objectively, either because it would cost too much or because there is no way to check the answer to “How happy are you?” But there are a lot of little things. We check for internal consistency, and we take extraordinary care in collecting and processing the data. The average respondent is obtained after 11 attempts–not because people are rude, but because so many are working or traveling.
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HH: I gather that one way you deal with that is not to rely too much on any single question.
JD: Yes, all these things change, but slowly. And the change seems to be cohort-driven; in other words it happens as one generation gradually replaces another. That’s what led to my article. We know there are steady changes. Are there any lumps and bumps, and if so, are they because of when you reached adolescence?
HH: You also found, as part of this long-term trend, that the generation coming of age in the 1950s was a bit more liberal than the one before it.
