Daniel A. Cox: Taking the Pulse of Gen Z

“One of the really significant differences in terms of how young people are being raised today and their formative and teens years and previous generations is how slowly they’re reaching major milestones, such as getting married [and] owning a home, the sort of signs of adulthood…”

On January 29th, Daniel A. Cox, the Director of the Survey Center on American Life and a Senior Fellow in Polling and Public Opinion at the American Enterprise Institute, joined Merion West editor-in-chief Erich J. Prince to discuss the work his center is doing, particularly as it pertains to surveying and seeking to understand Generation Z. Generation Z, which typically refers to those born after 1996 and up to the early 2010s, has been observed to possess key differences from preceding generations, including when it comes to engagement with risky behaviors, dating, politics, and, of course, social media use.

Dr. Cox earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in American government from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and has been a frequent commentator in the press, including at outlets such as FiveThirtyEight and Business Insider. He also frequently posts on X about the trends his center is observing. In their conversation, Dr. Cox and Mr. Prince discuss the political gender gap within Generation Z, including the observed trend of young men becoming more conservative and young women becoming more liberal; what Dr. Cox calls “the friendship recession”; and the impact of social media on the development of young people.

This interview appears in video form: