This really interesting scientific research paper in politics is written by Johnathan C. Peterson, Kevin B. Smith, and John R. Hibbing. Here is the abstract:
Folk wisdom has long held that people become more politically conservative as they grow older, although several empirical studies suggest political attitudes are stable across time. Using data from the Michigan Youth-Parent Socialization Panel Study, we analyze attitudinal change over a major portion of the adult life span. We document changes in party identification, self-reported ideology, and selected issue positions over this time period and place these changes in context by comparing them with contemporaneous national averages. Consistent with previous research but contrary to folk wisdom, our results indicate that political attitudes are remarkably stable over the long term. In contrast to previous research, however, we also find support for folk wisdom: on those occasions when political attitudes do shift across the life span, liberals are more likely to become conservatives than conservatives are to become liberals, suggesting that folk wisdom has some empirical basis even as it overstates the degree of change.
Find this research here.
david anderson says
also there’s the fact the world is changing: 30 years ago there was no Fox News or Breitbart and very few popular equivalents. Now there is this “moral architecture” broadcast. More to oldies.
THere’s a study Steven Pinker cites about cable news being put in in various places (adjoining towns, etc) in the midwest (circa 1990s) which suggests getting fox tends to tip things rightward.