These Labels are Bad

Age group stereotyping

By Cmglee - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91612069

Millennials are job hoppers. Boomers can’t learn new skills. Gen Zers are addicted to technology. Are these facts, or just commonly accepted stereotypes? (Like we need more sources of social prejudice.—Ed.)

Baby boomers, Millennials, Gen X Y Z — what do these labels even mean?

Absolutely nothing, according to sociologist Philip N. Cohen of the Maryland Population Research Center.

Consider these facts: The tennis champion Williams sisters are a generation apart, according to the Pew Research Center. Venus, born 1980, is part of “Gen X”; Serena, born 1981, is a “Millennial.” Meanwhile, Donald Trump and Michelle Obama are both in the same generation. The former was born in 1946 while the latter was born in 1964, making them both “baby boomers.“

Before you start wracking your brain to cram these diverse personalities into generational stereotypes, let me stop you there: Just don’t.

Why do we try “to cram diverse personalities” into a generational box as if the label says something pertinent about the individuals stuffed into the box? Convenience and marketing efficiency.

Slapping a label on a person or resorting to a cliche as a way to advance a story is a mainstay of lazy journalism. Using generational filters to sort through and make judgements about hundreds of job applicants is an efficient method for a recruiter. Generational categorization is used by advertising and marketing professionals to target customers. It works because consumers have been conditioned by prior marketing campaigns to identify with a generational label and its associated brands.

The pernicious influence of generational labeling and stereotyping is visible in numerous articles in the business press and on employee recruitment websites. Here are three examples:

Example 1 is from job search company Indeed.com’s website.

Gen Z vs. Millennials

Millennials are often more optimistic, with a highly entrepreneurial and inventive mindset when it comes to decision-making. In direct contrast, Gen Z individuals are more risk-averse and cautious because they witnessed and read about the instability millennials experienced. Gen Z is typically more interested in tested and well-established channels that can create security and success for them.

Example 2 is from the United Kingdom’s Blackbear Global, a global outsourcing firm.

Differences between Gen Z and Millennials

Millennials can focus better than Gen Z. This is because Gen Z lives in a world that needs constant updates. This generation processes information faster than others, because of all the apps that they use, but their attention might be significantly lower than Millennials.

To be a good leader for them, you have to understand the differences between both generations. Understanding their needs and interests will help you to work and guide them better.

Curious, isn’t it, that Britain’s population fits into the exact same generational buckets as does US society?

Example 3 is from the business publication Forbes Magazine. Here’s their handy list.

8 Ways Generation Z will differ from Millennials in the Workplace

1. Gen Z is motivated by security.

2. Gen Z may be more competitive.

3. Gen Z wants independence.

4. Gen Z will multitask (more than Millennials).

5. Gen Z is more entreprenurial.

6. Gen Z wants to communicate face-to-face.

7. Gen Z are true digital natives.

Forbes is a great barometer for sensing conventional wisdom. But . . . my platform, my thoughts: Basing an assessment of a job applicant on their birth year and alleged membership in a particular generational category is intellectually lazy and, frankly, discriminatory. How has generational type-casting become an acceptable standard for HR professionals—and not something they get sued for? How did these categories become ingested into the corporate blood stream?

Pew Research Center has been the main source naming and promoting this type of categorical thinking. Pew takes pride in leading the way:

Pew Research Center has been at the forefront of generational research over the years, telling the story of Millennials as they came of age politically and as they moved more firmly into adult life. In recent years, we’ve also been eager to learn about Gen Z as the leading edge as this generation moves into adulthood.

While many market research and consulting firms eagerly adopted and popularized generational labels, the categories themselves were considered legitimate because Pew “was at the forefront” of this research. However, Pew’s approach to generational research is coming under greater scrutiny and criticism, particularly by American social scientists and demographers.

Here’s more from Philip Cohen’s Washington Post op-ed:

Generation labels, although widely adopted by the public, have no basis in social reality. In fact, in one of Pew’s own surveys, most people did not identify the correct generation for themselves — even when they were shown a list of options.

This is not surprising since the categories are imposed by survey researchers, journalists or marketing firms before the identities they are supposed to describe even exist. Instead of asking people which group they feel an affinity for and why, purveyors of social “generations” just declare the categories and start making pronouncements about them. That’s not how social identity works.

The categories even fail to capture common experiences. . . .

Millennials are split between those who finished high school before the Great Recession (for whom the average unemployment rate was 7 percent upon graduation) and after (with unemployment rates spiking above 11 percent). No social scientist would draw these categories knowing what we know today. . . .

For example: think about kids who were enrolled in public schools during the Covid-19 pandemic. Undoubtedly, cohort effects will distinguish kids who experienced educational disruption because of the pandemic and those who did not. But how long the effects last and how Covid isolation differentially affected, say, high school juniors and seniors versus middle schoolers, is a matter for actual research.

Social scientists take this seriously. In 2021, Cohen and 316 colleagues published an Open Letter to the Pew Research Center on Generational Labels.

Here’s a key point:

Naming “generations” and fixing their birth dates promotes pseudoscience, undermines public understanding, and impedes social science research.

The “generation” names encourage assigning them a distinct character, and then imposing qualities on diverse populations without basis, resulting in the current widespread problem of crude stereotyping. This fuels a stream of circular debates about whether the various “generations” fit their associated stereotypes, which does not advance public understanding.

Two years later Pew Research said, “You’re right.”

Pew Research Center then explained why they would phase out generational labels and change their strategy moving forward:

But generational research has become a crowded arena. The field has been flooded with content that’s often sold as research but is more like clickbait or marketing mythology. There’s also been a growing chorus of criticism about generational research and generational labels in particular.

We’ll only do generational analysis when we have historical data that allows us to compare generations at similar stages of life. When comparing generations, it’s crucial to control for age. In other words, researchers need to look at each generation or age cohort at a similar point in the life cycle. (Emphasis added—m.o.)(“Age cohort” is a fancy way of referring to a group of people who were born around the same time.)

When doing this kind of research, the question isn’t whether young adults today are different from middle-aged or older adults today. The question is whether young adults today are different from young adults at some specific point in the past.

Finally. A step in the right direction.

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Notes:

Philip N. Cohen, Generational Labels Mean Nothing.

Philip N. Cohen, et al., Open letter to the Pew Research Center on Generation labels

Indeed.com, Gen Z vs. Millennials: Definitions and Key Differences

Kim Parker, How Pew Research Center will report on generations moving forward

Deep Patel, 8 Ways Generation Z Will Differ From Millennials In The Workplace