The silent generation

As psychologists, and people interested in the psychological space, we all know the organisation of data collection involves terms of reference and deciding on categories – a potentially divisive process. However, there are times when such divisions can have real political consequences, such as the misrecognition or obscuring of a group of citizens. A group of citizens who are obscured are the so-called Silent Generation, born between 1927 and 1946, aged now over 76 years old.   

It isn't known how remembering the use of Anderson shelters, rationing, and hiding under tables when the sirens went off in World War II affects how these citizens choose to vote in elections. In this article, drawing on a study with this generation, we explore the often-assumed narrative that older people were responsible for taking the UK out of the European Union within the UK-EU 2016 referendum.

Three generations

As the implications of the outcome of the Brexit referendum became clear, politicians and the media moved to find explanations for the vote to leave the European Union and to attribute blame. Various demographics were explored, and age became a variable positively associated with the likelihood to vote to leave the EU. 

Polling organisations, including YouGov, Survation, Ipsos and Eurobarometer, typically collect data on opinions and voting in 10-year age categories up to 65+, when further categorisation ceases, essentially leading to citizens with a potential age range of 40 years aggregated into a single category. Ipsos has reported data for a 75+ aggregated group, but when integrating with other demographics, for example, gender, they revert back to a 55+ aggregation. 

Within the 65+ aggregation, not only are there around 18 per cent of the UK population but there are also three generations of citizens. There are still some members of the 'Greatest Generation', aged over 95 years old, and many more members of the Boomer generation aged between 65 and 75 years. An overlooked generation forms the majority of citizens in this 65+ category, those ages between 76 and 94 years old, known as the Silent Generation.

When investigating the question of whether older voters were responsible for the outcome of the referendum, we found hidden trends within the larger aggregation of age data. These were first identified by Kieran Devine, who used Age-Period-Cohort analysis on Eurobarometer opinion data collected over several decades prior to the 2016 referendum. 

Devine indicated intriguingly that indirect measurement of attitudes to Europe revealed that the Silent Generation demonstrated more positive attitudes to Europe and the EU than younger members of the same 65+ age category. Their views on Europe were more aligned with those held by Generation Z, born between 1990 and 2010, the generation with the youngest members who were able to vote in 2016. 

Devine theorised that perhaps the memory of a time before the UK was a member of the European Community, and an appreciation of how peace has been largely maintained on the continent since the end of World War II, could have contributed to these less Eurosceptic attitudes of our oldest citizens. 

Essentially, the media portrayal of selfish older voters, as 'screwing the young' (Huffington Post, 2016) and comments made by politicians on the BBC in 2018, that older citizens were denying younger voters the benefits of freedom of movement and other benefits of EU membership, may only apply to the so-called 'boomer' generation members of the 65+ category, or may not apply at all. 

The basis of these claims is difficult to interrogate with aggregated polling data hiding the voting behaviour of the Silent Generation.

Lifelong political engagement

Research with this generation is showing how they are worthy of further exploration. They reveal lifelong political engagement and activism, resistance to the nostalgic glorification of the past, and political decision-making that is informed by lived experience of a period of huge social, cultural and technological change. 

The Silent Generation were infants or children during World War II and will have at least the aftermath of that highly significant historical event in living memory, if not the event itself. It is important to consider how their parents and other relatives are likely to have served in World War II. 

They may remember being bombed, spending hours in Anderson shelters sunk into the garden, or being evacuated as part of Operation Pied Piper. Post-war reconstruction formed part of their formative teenage years. 

The Silent Generation will also have seen huge social and political change, including the entry of the UK into what was then the Common Market (or European Economic Community) having been old enough to vote in the first referendum in the 1970s. They are a unique generation that is overlooked despite their lived experiences and lifetime contribution to society. 

Whilst it would be churlish to consider a reason for the pollsters' decisions on data collection for this group to be ageism, it almost certainly coincides with the approximate age of retirement (although this is increasing) at which point the contributor becomes the benefactor. 

The obscuring of citizens within data is not new and affects a range of groups, not just the elderly. Caroline Criado Perez writes about data bias relating to women in her 2019 book, Invisible Women. Describing those affected as invisible or silent, she also describes her book as 'a story about absence'. Absence is accepted when the value of a hidden group is less than the value of the visible. 

At the recent Covid enquiry, the perceived lack of value of Covid-positive elderly vulnerable patients discharged to care homes during the pandemic in 2020 was laid bare when Professor Dame Jenny Harries described this as 'entirely clinically appropriate' due to the triaging process that prioritised medical care for younger patients. 

Amnesty International's report 'As If Expendable' published in 2020 reported nearly 30,000 excess deaths of 65+ people in care homes between March and June that year, with two-thirds of those directly associated with Covid-19 infection. 

Talking with the Silent Generation

The original plans for our research involved in-person interviews with Silent Generation participants starting in May 2020. Pandemic lockdowns meant these had to be moved online. But as news started to emerge of the disproportionate number of deaths in the population we were focusing on, we were left wondering if there would be participants left to talk to. 

As a result of the despair I felt at the time, I [Sue] produced a blog, 'They're killing my participants', reflecting on the impact of government policy on the population of Silent Generation citizens. 

Fortunately, I was able to find participants to interview later in 2020, most of whom were shielding at home and who were happy to talk online, demonstrating technical skills that defied the stereotype of older citizens being unable to use digital devices. 

In open-ended interviews, using verbal prompts about voting over their lifetimes, these citizens revealed lifelong political engagement, evidence of continuing activism, strong views about the political landscape, and resistance to nostalgic rhetoric used by politicians to persuade. 

None of them who remembered World War II saw it as a feature of a glorious past.  Most considered themselves privileged to have witnessed the rise of the NHS and the benefits of free tertiary education. Most were appreciative of the UK's relationship with Europe. 

These positive attitudes to Europe held by the Silent Generation are hidden through imposed data categorisation. There are real-world consequences of the 65+ data aggregation, particularly in the apportioning of blame for voting outcomes. 

It is time that polling organisations reconsidered that final age demographic option of 65+ on opinion and voting data collections and recognised the diversity, rather than homogeneity, of this group which forms nearly one-fifth of the UK's population.

Sue Nieland is an Associate Director of Student Support and Senior Lecturer at the Open University. She is in the final year of a PhD studying the political decision-making of the Silent Generation.

Sarah Crafter is a Professor in Cultural-Developmental Psychology at The Open University. Her work focuses on young people's migration experiences and how they impact their everyday lives, particularly in the transitions to adulthood.

Kesi Mahendran is a Professor of Social and Political Psychology at the Open University.