Thought the only thing the economic downturn brought you was crippling university debt, a one-way ticket to the job centre and an infinite life of renting? Well you’re wrong! It’s not all bad news. The fact that you came of age in a recession apparently made you self-centred and more socially aware. Champagne all round!
According to research carried out by psychologists from Emory University of Atlanta, children who grown up in a recession are more likely to become well-rounded adults than people who have it easy from the start of their lives. The study, which analysed the characteristics of a massive 35,000 people born between 1930 and 1994, found that recession kids were less likely to be self-obsessed because growing up in difficult times lessens narcissism and a sense of entitlement. Interestingly, the study which was published in the Journal of Psychological Science found that the level of unemployment directly correlated to personality traits later on in life.
'These findings suggest that economic conditions during this formative period of life not only affect how people think about finances and politics, but also how they think about themselves and their importance relative to others,' said psychological scientist Emily Bianchi, of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. 'When people are young adults they are charting their own course for the first time - and their experiences affect them a great deal. The state of the economy has perhaps the greatest impact on the young. In a downturn young adults are the last to be hired and the first to be fired.'
It kind of makes sense, no? There’s nothing like feeling a little bit hard-done by yourself to make you consider other people who are going through hard times themselves. Is it bad that it’s made us feel kind of smug though? Doesn’t that kind of disprove the whole thing? Hmmmm….
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Picture: Lukasz Wierzbowski
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.