Spotlight Exploring the cultural trends and issues impacting society today GENERATIONAL ANALYSIS Changed days? Generational labels have contributed to some of the laziest stereotypes ever perpetuated, and their misuse risks undermining research. Is it time for a rethink? By Katie McQuater The avocado-toast guzzling lazy millennial has been usurped by the workshy Gen Z-er who never wants to come into the office, if clickbait headlines are to be believed. Cultural discourse continues to feed off stereotypes and apparent differences between the generations even if those variations are marginal, or dont actually exist at all. In May 2023, American thinktank Pew Research Center announced it would conduct generational analysis only when it has historical data that allows for comparison of generations at similar stages of life. Even then, it would attempt to control for other factors beyond age in making generational comparisons. Pew had been in the process of rethinking how it approached its analysis of the new adult generation Gen Z when a groundswell of criticism over generational research, mainly from academics, started to gain steam. People had started to look to us for very specific definitions of generations, such as where does millennial end and Gen Z begin, and so on, and thats not really where we wanted to be, says Kim Parker, director of social trends research at Pew. At the same time, academic critics were making a lot of valid points that a lot of people doing marketing research, or even people who just arent doing careful statistical analysis, will take age differences and slap a generation on, just because it makes for a more interesting story. Parker has been at Pew for a while, and says when it first began conducting research on millennials, it wasnt as gimmicky or as much of a marketing tool. But in the 15 years or so since then, its become so clichd and there are a lot of stereotypes, she says. We didnt want to be perpetuating that. Parker believes the crux of the problem is that you dont know if what youre seeing are generational differences or lifestyle ones. Young people are different from older people, but it doesnt necessarily mean its unique to their generation, she explains. It is only You look back and you always see people thinking young people are the worst possible to know if generational differences are meaningful if you can compare with previous generations at the same age. One critic, sociologist Philip Cohen, wrote an open letter to Pew signed by demographers and social scientists calling on it to stop using generational labels. Addressing the issue in a 2021 column for The Washington Post, he said such labels had no basis in social reality. Parker says Pew brought in a series of speakers over the course of a year, including critics and proponents of generational research, to get a grip on the issue, before changing its direction. One of the challenges Pew has faced, along with others in the polling industry, is that, over time, the organisation has shifted from telephone to online surveys, meaning earlier data is not necessarily comparable with surveys conducted today. We were hoping we could go back to our surveys in the late-80s and see how Gen X-ers felt when they were young, and compare with other generations at a similar age, says Parker. But we realised we couldnt do that. Are generational labels still relevant? Parker thinks they can be, but with the big caveat that you must be able to control for age and life-cycle. Again, this requires robust historical data. However, Parker adds: Im pretty persuaded by the fact theres so much diversity within generations sometimes an older Gen X-er might have more in common with a young boomer than they do with the youngest Gen X-er. It can be useful in some contexts, but you really have to treat it with care and come at it with some sort of theoretical underpinning. Bobby Duffy, professor of public policy and director of the Policy Institute at Kings College London, and author of Generations Does when youre born shape who you are?, thinks generational markers are still relevant, notwithstanding the issues raised about how they are used. But he says most generational analysis is not useful, and can be harmful. I am a big believer in understanding things generationally being a really vital tool in understanding where weve come from, where we are now, and the future, he says. If we can think of things generationally, it gives a really good understanding of history and the future, and about why weve seen the changes weve seen, and what we might see next. But thats not where weve ended up with most generational analysis, which is useless or misleading, or dangerous, or just a waste of time because its not true generational analysis; its just applying these labels to cross-section snapshots that dont tell you very much. Worse than that, particularly in the marketing and employee research space, 16 Impact ISSUE 44 2023_pp16-19_Spot .indd 16 05/12/2023 12:05