“Kids These Days Effect” among Baby Boomer Generation and the Zenkyoto Generation

－ Comparison the image of young people in the past and these days －

Abstract

This study focused on the “kids these days effect” as ageism from older adults to the young. The hypothesis was verified by older adults in their 70s that they have a more positive image of “young people of the past,” followed by “young people in general,” and then “young people these days.” As a result of measuring the images using semantic differential method, there was no difference between the images in the overall evaluation of “good-bad.” Factor analysis revealed that older people evaluate the image of young people from two aspects: “Potency and Activity,” which evaluates their overall impression of young people, and “Evaluation,” which evaluates social norms. This study revealed that older people evaluate young people of the past more positively than other young people in the “Evaluation” aspect. A bias in which young people of the past are always evaluated positively was confirmed, partially supporting the hypothesis. It has been suggested that kids these days effect does not result from an absolute negative evaluation of young people these days, but rather from a relative difference with the evaluation of young people of the past, which are a projection of older adults’ current selves.