The Perils of Generational Thinking – Richard Gunderman

Generationism’ is a newer form of prejudice that seems to have become remarkably acceptable in public discourse.

It holds, much like astrology, that persons can be prejudged according to their birth cohort.

“ Generationists ” believe that the members of these different cohorts differ from one another in predictable ways that should inform what we expect.

Generationism is a form of what the sociologist Robert Merton referred to as a “self-fulfilling prophecy.

We assume that people born at different times must differ from one another.

People often share more characteristics in common with different generations of their own family than with members of their graduation class.