The 'Kids These Days' Effect is Actually Just an Illusion, Study Says

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Ever had an uncle who regularly talks about the negative traits of the "youth these days?" Why do adults seem to be generally disapproving of the youth? It turns out that this perceived decline of the youth has existed for millennia.

Scientists at the University of California's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences coined the term "kids these days" effect. It is the tendency of adults to disparage the youth of today. In the study they conducted, they examined the mechanisms behind the "kids these days" effect across three traits, namely respect for elders, intelligence, and enjoyment of reading.

Examination of the responses of 3,458 American adults, aged 31–55, to several questionnaires and tests confirmed the existence of the "kids these days" effect. Moreover, they found out that this phenomenon is due to two distinct cognitive processes—the memory bias and the tendency to denigrate others in areas where one particularly excel.

Researchers John Protzko and Jonathan Schooler designed five studies to probe the mechanisms behind the "kids these days" effect.

In the first three studies, they asked participants how much they believed the youth of today fare in terms of the traits examined compared to when they were children. They administered questionnaires and tests to the participants via an online platform. The last two studies were designed to analyze further the influence of memory bias and the tendency to notice other's limitations to the "kids these days" effect.

The "kids these days" effect occurs because people usually perceive others as lacking in areas where they excel. For example, an adult with above-average intelligence may consistently perceive others as less intelligent, regardless if they are young or adult.

The second mechanism behind the "kids these days" effect is memory bias. It is the subjective inclination to recall memories that align with the current mental state. Science Daily reports that it may either enhance or impair the recall of a memory. It may also alter the content of what we report to remember. However, in the last two studies, the researchers found out that there was more to the influence of memory bias.

People who excel in one area are inclined to project that trait to their past selves and peers. For example, they believe that "because I read a lot now, everyone liked to read back in my day." The brain lacks information about the peers of the past; therefore, it instead projects the current self to the past self and onto past others.

The findings of this study illustrate that this disapproval over the perceived decline of the youth across generations is merely an illusion based on several cognitive mechanisms. Its perception can be experimentally manipulated by altering people's memories as children, just like in the last two studies conducted by Protzko and Schooler.

In sum, "subsequent generations appear to be objectively in decline even though they're not due to a psychological or mental trick; and because it's built into the way the mind works, each generation experiences it over and over again," said Protzko in an interview with Phys.org.

Even if the "kids these days" effect is likely to persist for years to come, knowing that they are a product of our cognitive processes can help avoid unnecessary negativity towards the youth of today, and maybe even help build better connections between the youth and adults.