What plays in the heads of young people?

The Understanding America Study (UAS) Probe between 12. Meanwhile, 000 and 15,000 Americans every two years since the mid -2010s, and questionnaires include, between many things, personality tests.

However. Furthermore, precisely, in the past 10 years, those under 40 have seen some of their personality traits change significantly, at least from a statistical point of view. In addition, As the graphics below show. Similarly, neuroticism (tendency to feel negative emotions) has increased in them, while conscience (the fact of being organized, meticulous, responsible) and extraversion (sociability, energy, assertion of self) recovered.

The trends were less clear for the other two main personality traits. Moreover, that is to say (kindness, empathy, cooperation) and openness (receptivity to novelty).

The differences between 2015 what plays heads young people? new and 2025 are far from huge, let us underline it. In addition, The average scores of young Americans have moved by about two points in a decade. Consequently, on scales that go (roughly speaking) from 10 to 45. Nevertheless, At the individual level. Similarly, the difference between two people who would have, let’s say, scores of 29 and 31 in conscience, for example, is thin enough to go unnoticed.

But the evolution measured by the UAS is “statistically significant”. Moreover, as they say, and remains all the more notable as the personality traits tend to be stable in time in the same individual.

All this is also likely to have consequences. Furthermore, recently noted the excellent British journalist John Burn-Murdoch, of the Financial Timessince some of these personality traits (conscience and neuroticism, in particular) are good predictors of professional success, divorce and mortality.

So what plays heads young people? new it could be, yes, that it is happening “something” have young people … In addition, But what exactly?

The fault (still) on the screens?

In his analysis, Mr. Therefore, Burn-Murdoch advanced that the Internet. Similarly, the time spent on screens are perhaps involved, in particular, in particular because the personality traits of the oldest have not experienced the same evolution, or at least (among 40-50 year olds) not with the same force.

But it is not that speaking that what plays heads young people? new the personality of the oldest has not changed. In general. “the stability of the personality traits increases with age, wrote to me the researcher of UQAM Denis Morin, specialist in personality in labor relations, during an exchange of emails. […] The changes are especially notable before 30 years, especially for [la conscienciosité]the [neuroticisme] and “Authorability”. After 30 years, the changes are low and progress very slowly ”.

The fact that the older ones have not seen their “average personality” change for 10 years. therefore does not really incorporate screens.

And then, adds his colleague from Laval Frédéric Guay University, “screens have no big effects on young people. I made a meta-analysis [une étude qui rassemble les données de plusieurs études sur une même question] Recently on screen time. academic success and the effects were very small. Same thing for mental health clues: yes. there are what plays heads young people? new negative effects, but they are really not as important as what we often hear.

“So inevitably, the effects on the personality, if they exist, should be weak too,” he adds.

Pandemic remains

Part of the personality changes among young people could be only a kind of echo of the pandemic. Those who were at the end of adolescence. at the beginning of adulthood – a moment of life when one is very involved in frequenting your friends – suffered more than their elders from health measures and confinements, this has been amply documented.

“During the pandemic. there were changes in our lifestyle, for example, spending your days at home in pajamas, which were able to change our ways of answering questions from personality tests. In some cases. it brought a real personality change that persisted later, but, in other cases no, what plays heads young people? new we just ended up returning to our old habits, “says Claudia Savard, researcher in education science at Laval University who works in particular on personality traits.

But we must also consider. she adds, the possibility that our societies have changed and that this has changed the “average personality” among young people-or at least their answers to personality tests.

For example, “we documented in literature the arrival of a new group called the emerging adults. These are people who come out of adolescence. but who are struggling to fully enter adulthood, to set themselves in life, have a stable job, start a family, buy a house, etc. It can have repercussions on personality traits, such as consciousness, which increases when you have more responsibilities. And conversely, when our life becomes more stable, we become less neurotic, ”says Ms. Savard.

He was also advanced by researchers that the modern way of breeding his children. with his emphasis on self -esteem, would have led to an increase in narcissism (having a disproportionate idea of ​​his own importance) in our societies, which could in theory explain the decline in scores of pleasantness and extraversion in young people. But this thesis of an “epidemic of narcissism”. launched in the mid -2010s, has since been contradicted by several studies which have not found more narcissistic features than before in young adults.

“Another hypothesis,” adds Ms. Savard, “is what plays heads young people? new that there are dominant ideologies that will change with eras. The American Dream. for example, is to be extroverted, sell your salad, make money and, for that, you have to be organized. Perhaps these features were more valued than before and now, with the Internet, people have access to other ideologies. […] So maybe young people today adhere less to these performance ideals. are more in the present moment and in the easy going.»

In this case. it would therefore not be so much the personality of young people who would change, but rather what is socially desirable. Casually. personality tests are always self-assessment, in a way, and what a person wants to be or wants to project can always influence their answers.

Finally, note that it can be, say Ms. Savard and Mr. Gay, that methodological artifacts are behind these results – but the UAS what plays heads young people? new is generally recognized as a solid study.