Reminder: Claims about millennials, and every other generation, are BS

You’ve probably heard that millennials (many of whom, by the way, are entering their mid-thirties) are self-obsessed, or obsessed with others, or coddled and conceited, or idealistic and energetic. Forget about it. It’s all bullshit.

The idea that we can assign universal characteristics to generations is largely false; research published online last year and recently cited by Sanjay Srivastava, a University of Oregon psychologist, bolsters the case.

In 2010, as media attention on millennials reached a fever pitch, psychologists Kali Trzesniewski and M. Brent Donnellan examined surveys of nearly 500,000 high school seniors between 1976 and 2006. They found “little evidence of meaningful change in egotism, self-enhancement, individualism, self-esteem, locus of control, hopelessness, happiness, life satisfaction, loneliness, antisocial behavior, time spent working or watching television, political activity, the importance of religion, and the importance of social status over the last 30 years.”

Read the whole story (subscription may be required): Quartz