How Cohorts, Education, and Ideology Shaped a New Sexual Revolution on American Attitudes toward Nonmarital Sex, 1972–1998

TLDR

The 1972–98 General Social Surveys show evolving attitudes toward various nonmarital sexual behaviors, with higher education, secularism, and relative income linked to greater tolerance. The study finds that cohort succession and intracohort aging drive liberalization, with recent sharp declines in disapproval of homosexuality driven by younger, less religious individuals and the spread of permissive values from higher to lower education groups.

Abstract

Data from the 1972–98 General Social Surveys document changes in attitudes toward premarital, extramarital, homosexual, and teenage sex. This analysis demonstrates the liberalizing effect of cohort succession but also finds intracohort change in attitudes as the birth cohorts age. Intracohort change dominated recent dramatic declines in disapproval of homosexuality. As theories of individualism and postmaterialism suggest, higher education, secularism, and relative income are associated with greater tolerance of homosexuality. Although the young and those who do not attend religious services frequently led the 1988–98 declines in disapproval of same-sex relations, the diffusion of permissive values from higher to lower education groups is also evident.