Our evolving personalities (and politics)

[Valin]

Hot Air:

Jazz Shaw

1/27/13

 

One of the common maxims I’ve been hearing all my life is that people tend to be liberal when they are younger, but grow more conservative as they get older, have to work, pay taxes and prepare for retirement. I’ve said it myself more times than I can count, and I’ve found it to be largely true, at least through personal observation. But I also see claims going in the opposite direction.

 

It applies to more than politics, though. Movies, books, music… possibly even food. Do our tastes really change all that much as we age? And more to the point, do we ever really “stabilize” at some point in middle age or do we keep on evolving for our entire lives? There’s a pretty good article this weekend in the LA Times about studies done on this subject by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert.

 

(Snip)

 

Am I just blocking things out… whitewashing my past to make it seem as if I’m more consistent? How have those of you who’ve seen more than a few winters come and go observed yourself changing? Or not changing, I suppose. (And no, we don’t need to hear from you whippersnappers in your teens and early twenties on this one. We already know that you know everything and are smarter than everyone else. I know I was at your age. Pfffffft)