A new study finds that neurotic young Americans are more likely to hold liberal political views—but only in the United States, and only in younger generations. The pattern vanishes in older Americans and doesn't appear in 19 other countries, suggesting that economic anxiety, not personality alone, may be reshaping American politics.
The research, published in the International Social Science Journal, analyzed data from over 25,000 people across three separate studies. What emerges is a portrait of generational divergence: young Americans who score high on neuroticism—a personality trait characterized by anxiety, worry, and emotional instability—tilt decidedly toward liberal ideology. But their grandparents? No such pattern.
THE GENERATIONAL HYPOTHESIS
Francesco Rigoli, a social scientist at City St George's, University of London, calls this the "Generational Hypothesis." The idea is straightforward but significant: older Americans came of age during the post-war boom, an era of stable jobs, strong unions, and economic optimism. Younger Americans, by contrast, grew up during what Rigoli calls the "contemporary" period—think rising student debt, gig economy precarity, and the 2008 financial crisis landing in their formative years.
"While in recent years old Americans have moved to the conservative camp, young Americans have become progressively more liberal," Rigoli told PsyPost. "Why this has occurred remains poorly understood."
His hypothesis: economic competition breeds anxiety, and anxiety seeks political solutions. Liberal ideology, with its emphasis on social safety nets and critiques of hyper-competition, may appeal to young people experiencing heightened mental distress.
THE EVIDENCE
Rigoli conducted three studies to test this idea. The first analyzed 1,644 participants from the 2022 General Social Survey, a long-running representative sample of Americans. Neuroticism was measured through two questions about nervousness and worry. Political ideology was assessed on a seven-point scale from "extremely liberal" to "extremely conservative."
The results were striking. Among younger adults (roughly ages 29-43), higher neuroticism predicted liberal ideology. For those 57 and older, the relationship disappeared entirely. The cutoff appeared around age 47.
The second study replicated these findings with 600 participants recruited through the online platform Prolific. This time, neuroticism was measured using the Big Five Inventory—a validated eight-item scale that's far more reliable than two questions. Same result: neuroticism predicted liberalism only in Americans younger than 54.
Both studies controlled for gender, income, education, and ethnicity. The age-neuroticism-ideology link held across all demographics.
THE INTERNATIONAL TEST
Here's where it gets interesting. If this were simply about aging—if young neurotics everywhere lean left—you'd expect to find the same pattern globally. You don't.
The third study examined 23,368 participants from 20 countries spanning Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America through the World Values Survey. Across all these countries, there was no consistent interaction between age and neuroticism in predicting political ideology.
This is the study's most compelling finding. It suggests the American pattern isn't biological or developmental. It's contextual. Something about the contemporary United States—rising inequality, educational debt averaging $30,000 per graduate, labor market instability—is creating both mental distress and political realignment among the young.
WHAT IT DOESN'T PROVE
Rigoli is appropriately cautious about causation. These are correlational studies. We can't definitively say that neuroticism causes young people to become liberal. The arrow might point the other direction: perhaps holding liberal views in an increasingly polarized America generates anxiety. Or perhaps a third factor—say, economic precarity—causes both neuroticism and leftward politics.
"The next step is to investigate empirically why neuroticism is linked with ideology among young, but not old Americans," Rigoli notes. "Is it because young Americans have grown up in a more competitive age, as hypothesized in the paper? This remains to be explored empirically."
There's also the question of what we mean by "liberal" in a seven-point self-assessment scale. American political ideology is multidimensional—you can be economically progressive but socially conservative, or vice versa. The study doesn't parse these distinctions.
WHY IT MATTERS
Setting aside the obvious political flashpoints this research might trigger, there's a deeper story here about how economic structures shape psychology, and how psychology shapes politics.
Rates of anxiety and depression have surged among young Americans over the past two decades. If Rigoli's hypothesis holds, this isn't just a public health crisis—it's a political one. The same forces making young people anxious may be pushing them toward ideologies that promise relief from that anxiety.
"These findings encourage people to reflect on the benefits and costs of living in a competitive society like the American one," Rigoli observes. "It invites readers to reflect on how competition may affect people's mental wellbeing, and in turn on how this may have implications for politics."
The universe doesn't care what we believe. But apparently, the economy we build might shape what we believe more than we'd like to admit.
The study, "Neuroticism Is Linked With Liberal Ideology in Young, but not Old, People in the United States," was authored by Francesco Rigoli and published in the International Social Science Journal.
