There's a well-known belief that people have a tendency to become more conservative as they get older. This item reports on research purporting to show that the belief is true: older people, apparently, 'have a strong unconscious incentive to embrace culturally conservative values' because it 'bolsters their self-esteem'. How that's supposed to work is as follows:
Van Hiel and Brebels argue that old age is a time to take stock of your life and attempt to find meaning. For most, this means looking back at your experiences and accomplishments in the context of your social environment. A social-conservative belief system, which values your culture or society above others, would elevate your own personal status, thus propping up your self-esteem.
I'm in no position to question the data of the researchers, not having seen it. But their explanation strikes me as too easy. Of course, it might work that way: Fred and Glenda have enough satisfactions and achievements in their lives, in a manner endorsed, so to say, by the cultural norms prevailing, so they tend towards the defence of these in the face of criticism of them. But what about people unhappy, or less happy, in old age than Fred and Glenda, and this on account of failures, or mishaps, or misfortunes which can be put down, wholly or in part, to the 'rules of the game' as it is played? Wouldn't that incline them to become more radical, or at least to maintain whatever radicalism they had when young?
