Watch CBS News

Study: Millennials Have Low Levels Of Social Trust Compared To Other Generations

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Millennials, pioneers of the digital age, America's most racially diverse generation and its most… distrusting? That's according to a study out of Pew Research Center.

Pew says Millennials have the lowest levels of social trust compared to Generation Xers, Silents and Baby Boomers.

The study says just 19 percent of Millennials believe most people can be trusted. This is compared to 31 percent of Generation Xers, 37 percent of Silents and 40 percent of Baby Boomers.

But their distrust is not indicative of their optimism about the future. Pew says they are bit more upbeat than older adults about the country's future.

Forty-nine percent of Millennials say America's best years are still ahead. This opinion is shared by only 42 percent of Generation Xers, 44 percent of Baby Boomers and 39 percent of Silents.

Pew says Millennials hopefulness for the future is quite different than the views of Baby Boomers when they were the same age. In a Gallup survey in 1974, Pew says only half of adults 30 said they had "quite a lot," compared to seven in ten of those 30 and older.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.