Millennials were less likely to think about social problems, make efforts to conserve natural resources, be interested in or participate in government, voting, contacting their representatives, participate in demonstrations or boycotts or giving money to political causes. The decline in environmental concern and action are markedly steep. Remarkably, three times as many Millennials said they “made no personal effort at all to help the environment” compared to Gen Xers

For those who pay attention to the different opinions and declarations on how the various generations are different than the ones that came before, you have no doubt heard that while Generation X was the slacker generation, Gen Y, or the Millennials, are very different, the most community service-minded, action-oriented, let’s change-the-world-generation alive today, perhaps in the history of our nation. Generation We.

It’s taken as a nearly uncontested reality.

Except it’s not true.

The best research on this topic, relying on nationally representative research by the leading scholars on the issue comes to essentially the very opposite conclusion. Two of these scholars are Professors Jean Twenge (San Diego State) and Christian Smith (Notre Dame). They find that Generation We is more like Generation Me.

They explain that the “Generation We” understanding of Millennials comes from surveys that examined relatively small, non-representative population samples and did not compare them with previous generations, the kind of compelling but incomplete study that catches the attention of journalists. And thus, the myriad of newspaper and magazine stories contributing to the myth.

Jean Twenge’s Findings

As Twenge explains in a May 2012 Atlantic article, “You can’t really conclude anything about generational difference if you have data from only one generation.” Twenge’s work does not have this limitation: She uses two massive, nationally representative samples—one million high-schoolers and nine million college respondents—comparing Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials at the same age. Her data draw from what respondents said about themselves.

Her 2012 article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that, “For the most part, Millennials continued the downward trend in concern for others begun by Gen X. In sum, Millennials generally score lower than previous generations in concern for others . . .” (1)

Twenge explains that most of the items on the social/community concern measures she examined declined “faster or just as fast” for Millennials compared to Gen Xers, than between Boomers and Gen Xers.

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