Youngism: Experimental Evidence (with Vojtěch Bartoš, Michal Bauer, Jana Cahlíková)

Preferences over well-being of different generations shape social, political and economic outcomes. We document systematic bias in social preferences against young adults (“youngism”), and show that it is partly due to inaccurate beliefs that young adults face relatively little hardship. In controlled experimental tasks, respondents from a Czech nationally-representative sample allocate less money to younger adults than to their own or older age groups. This bias is widespread and similar in size to discrimination against immigrants. Further, people underestimate the prevalence of mental health problems among young adults, and provision of accurate information increases prosocial behavior toward this age group.