The Decline in Conscientiousness Is Not Inevitable

But we do have to act virtuously

Photo by Benyamin Bohlouli on Unsplash

John Burn-Murdoch’s latest Financial Times¹ article has started quite a buzz online, and with good reason. In it, he charts several findings from a larger study on Americans which shows a marked decline in conscientiousness in younger Americans and a rise in neuroticism.

The article defines “conscientiousness” in context of the study as “the quality of being dependable and disciplined.” Burn-Murdoch includes other charts which show the results of surveys questioning things like following through on plans, persevering until finished, being easily distracted, and so on. And in each case, the 16-39 age range shows a tendency to be undependable and irresponsible. The most obvious culprits for this decline in conscientiousness are smartphones and social media. The less attached younger people are to the “real world” and its consequences, the less conscientious they will be. That makes some sense. But I suspect more forces are at work. For example, the COVID-19 epidemic must have had a negative effect on the way younger people saw their obligations and duties in life, as they were given extreme leeway on due dates in school, for example. I can think of two more major reasons why younger people might be inclined to be less conscientious than older people. First, because they understand that in the contemporary world there is nothing worth committing to. Second, because they feel like they have no agency in the world. We’ll talk about those briefly in a minute.

A separate but more pressing question is whether there is anything we can do about this decline. As with many declines in the contemporary world, there is a spirit of defeat among online commenters, a sense that everything is falling apart and there’s nothing we can do about it. This is especially the case since the blame seems to fall on smartphones and social media. If the problem is technology, then the problem is too big. There’s nothing we can do to stop it. We’re doomed. Young people are just going to be less conscientious. That’s it.

But I don’t buy that. I don’t think we’re doomed to a less conscientious age. Or, at least, I don’t think individual young people are doomed to be less conscientious. But I do think if we want a change to happen we’re going to have to accept that we have agency and practice being virtuous people. And that begins in the church.