Our beliefs are based on our subjective values, assumptions and prejudices. The values we adhere to depend on the context in which we grow up. The more stable and prosperous this context, the more progressive the values we develop. Is each new generation becoming more progressive?
Quita Muis is an assistant professor at Tilburg University. She participates in the long-term, international survey program the European Values Study. Her main focus is research on polarization, with a focus on values and identities: how do our values and identities develop in a rapidly changing world and how does this influence politics and society? Her TEDx Talk will focus on the alleged cultural backlash, in which the surge in cultural liberalism in recent decades has created an authoritarian reflex in Western societies. Certain groups are said to hold more conservative and anti-democratic ideas. Science just disagrees on whether this is precisely the case among older or younger people.