“Young People These Days … ”

Abstract

The current study investigated perceptions of emerging adults (aged 18–25) and found indications that ratings of attributes ascribed to this group are more negative than ratings of older groups. An Internet sample ranging in age from 18 to 87 (N = 641) tended to have more positive feelings toward adults and older adults than emerging adults and adolescents. In particular, emerging adults were seen as more immoral, narcissistic, and overconfident than adults and less agreeable and emotionally stable. Participants generally rated today’s emerging adults as more self-centered, less hardworking, lazier, and promiscuous when compared to emerging adults of the past. Likewise, spontaneous descriptors of emerging adults were negative. A second sample of Mechanical Turk workers (N = 1,118) was used to evaluate how perceptions of different age groups compare to ratings of the average adult. In total, we found converging evidence for the existence of negative impressions about emerging adults.