Aging and Conservatism

The notion that aging beyond adolescence and young adulthood leads to conservatism is part of the conventional wisdom, and there are theoretical reasons to believe that certain dimensions of biological, social and psychological aging contribute to some kinds of conser vatism. For instance, with the assumption of family respon sibilities, a diffuse liberalism-humanitarianism is likely to be overshadowed by concern for specific others. Or, aging persons may become more conservative in the sense that their attitudes and values become more resistant to change, because each subsequent experience is a smaller proportion of the total background of experiences. Empirical evidence on the topic is not definitive; moreover, in view of intransigent methodological problems which plague the study of aging effects, the evidence may never be definitive. However, cohort analysis of United States survey sample data reveals that in recent years persons aging beyond young adulthood and beyond middle age have tended to become more liberal in many respects, in conformity with general societal trends. However, these people have tended to become more conservative in a relative sense since their liberalization has not kept pace with changes in the total adult population. Although the evidence suggests that attitudes probably become somewhat less susceptible to change as people grow older, there is scant evidence for any other contribution of aging to conservatism.