Jean Twenge

Jan 14, 2025 | katiecouric.com | Jean Twenge

What Baby Boomers wish Zoomers understood about them — and vice versa. With targeted phrases like “OK, Boomer” and “brain rot” echoing through the media lately, generation gaps seem bigger than ever. The gap between Boomers (born 1946-1964) and Gen Z (1995-2009) is especially wide — Gen Z has never known a world without smartphones, while Boomers grew up when TV was new technology. But there doesn’t have to be such a big gap in mutual understanding.

Oct 30, 2024 | generationtechblog.com | Jean Twenge

Ten years ago, it was rare for people to identify as nonbinary (a gender outside the usual binary of “man” or “woman.”) Now it’s discussed much more frequently, though with a significant generational split. Many Gen Z teens and young adults use terms older generations aren’t familiar with, like gender fluid, demiboy, and enby (the last is the phonetic for “nb,” an abbreviation for nonbinary).

Oct 24, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Jean Twenge

Listen1.0x0:009:47Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (Noa) using AI narration. Listen to more stories on the Noa app. The prevalence of positive illusions is one of the most well-established findings in psychology. Most people have an exaggerated view of their own abilities and expect that more good things—and fewer bad things—will happen to them than is likely.

Jul 30, 2024 | generationtechblog.com | Jean Twenge

With the fall election season on the horizon, all eyes are on young voters. One trend that’s getting lots of attention is the gender gap: Since 2010, a growing proportion of young men and a shrinking proportion of young women have identified as conservative. That has created a growing gender gap in political ideology. Recent polls suggest that the gender gap among young voters will be a significant factor in the 2024 election.

Jun 18, 2024 | ifstudies.org | Jean Twenge

Much of the evidence for the adolescent mental health crisis is based on surveys where teens are asked about their symptoms. Those surveys are anonymous and often ask about symptoms many people many not even realize are indicators of depression. Still, having behavioral evidence of mental health issues is also important, to rule out the possibility that teens are just more willing to admit to symptoms than they used to be.