Are Younger Generations the Most Tolerant?

What can Italian eating habits tell us about generational tolerance and acceptance?

Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash.

Younger generations are often perceived to be more tolerant and accepting than older generations. It is indeed a common stereotype that Millennials and Zoomers/Gen Z have a higher tolerance of differing social habits than that of the Baby Boomers and Gen X. Like most stereotypes, there are elements of truth of this as a sweeping generalization, but it oversimplifies a much more nuanced discussion. 

A study by the United Kingdom’s UCL Institute of Education found that British youths are much more likely to be accepting of homosexuality and racial diversity than their older generation counterparts. The United States follows a similar trend. According to Gallup, while only four percent of Americans were accepting of interracial marriage in 1958, that number stood at a remarkable 87 percent in 2013, a mere 55 years later. Similarly, 61 percent of Americans approved of gay marriage in 2019, a vast gain in support from the 31 percent approval in 2014, per Pew Research. 

To put this in perspective, President Joe Biden recently recalled that his support for gay marriage began in his youth during high school. However, in 1994 he voted in favor of a bill that defined marriage at the federal level between a man and a woman. Even more recently in 2008, he reaffirmed that he did not support reconstituting marriage to include homosexual relationships. This stark contrast shows that he was either much more tolerant in his youth, or that it only recently became politically viable for him to support gay marriage. 

Tom Elliott @tomselliott

Biden: “I can remember exactly when my epiphany [on supporting gay marriage] was ... I was a senior in high school. And my dad was dropping me off and I remember I was about to get out of the car and I looked to my right and two well-dressed men in suits kissed each other."

The examples of social behavior I used above—racial diversity, homosexuality, and their place within traditional institutions such as that of marriage—are still in the spotlight of today’s political arena. Is it merely the political factor that makes younger generations tend to be more tolerant? Or is the same true for any social behavior?

Our understanding of tolerance and acceptance towards social behavior can be clouded by the partisan nature of politics, in that it can too often boil down to tribal disputes: my side versus your side. Therefore, it can be useful to examine social behaviors that, while still divisive over their acceptance, have much lower stakes than that of the definition of marriage. 

YouGov recently released results of polls, detailing the acceptance of various Italian food habits, asking various age groups divisive and hard-hitting questions such as eating pizza with a fork, pineapple on pizza, or having garlic bread as a side to a pasta dish. 

In many regards, Italian youths mirror the social acceptance and forgiving tolerance that American and British youths have towards divisive socio-political issues. A net +24 of 18-24-year-olds say drinking a cappuccino after eating an Italian meal is acceptable, a stark contrast with every other age group that gave it a net unacceptable rating. 

In fact, on most questions Italian youths tend to be more tolerant than the older age groups. They approve of garlic bread with a pasta meal by a net +13 margin, while 45-54-year-olds disapprove by a net -24 margin. When it comes to putting plain pasta on a dish, and then adding sauce, Italian youths are tolerant by a net +19 margin, while 45-54-year-olds disapprove by a net -15 margin. 

Even when a majority of the 45-54 age group approves, such as eating risotto as an appetizer or side dish, which garnered a +5 net acceptance, the youth vastly outweighs in tolerance, accepting the progressive risotto eating habits by a +22 net favor. 

And while most of the questions follow the stereotype that youths tend to be more tolerant, there are notable exceptions to this. While Italian youths may be accepting of garlic bread and post-meal cappuccinos, putting olive oil in boiling pasta water could very well make you the next cancel culture victim, with youths disapproving by a net -37 factor. While 25-34-year-olds share this disdain at a -26 margin, the three other age groups all have a net acceptance of olive oil inclusivity within pasta water. 

The tolerance of Italian youths towards lower-stake, non-ideological social habits of Italian food tends to follow a similar trend to American and British youths towards contentious political debates. Generally speaking, youths do average higher in the acceptance of unconventional social behaviors that some older generations find puzzling, immoral, or—in the case of ketchup in pasta or pineapple on pizza—outright blasphemous. Yet there are certain social habits that certain youths have a very low tolerance for, whether that be a contrarian opinion regarding school protests or putting olive oil in boiling pasta water.