OK boomer

Your Parents Are More Sensitive Than You

‘OK Boomer’ goes from meme to a scientifically-backed fact

OK boomer

Millennials have been dubbed the loneliest generation, but at least that’s true (researchers backed this claim up in a study a few months ago). But millennials have also been subjected to an unfounded number of baseless attributes over the years. 

The most widespread? That they’re overly-sensitive. It turns out, that’s far from true. The claim, which was often spouted by baby boomers (a person born in the years following the Second World War) has just been debunked by a new study. 

The report, which was conducted by Michigan State University (the longest study on narcissism to date) proved that boomers are actually more sensitive to criticism than millennials. 

Sensitivity to criticism is an attribute of narcissistic personality disorder, alongside imposing your opinion on others and being full of yourself, hence why the study (which examined how narcissism changes throughout life) looked into these factors. 

‘‘There’s a narrative in our culture that generations are getting more and more narcissistic, but no one has ever looked at it throughout generations or how it varies with age at the same time,” said the study’s lead author William Chopik, an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University. 

According to the study, the recently-viral ‘OK boomer’ meme’s mere existence is entirely justified. “One of the most surprising findings was that – also contrary to what many people think – individuals who were born earlier in the century started off with higher levels of hyper-sensitivity, or the type of narcissism where people are full of themselves, as well as wilfulness, which is the tendency to impose opinions on others,” explained Chopik.

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