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Banner image: President Joe Biden, then 78, and musician Olivia Rodrigo, then 18, at the White House in 2021. (Credit: The White House)

Good news, Mr. President: A new study from a team of political scientists finds that the age of politicians may not be voters鈥� chief concern when they鈥檙e deciding who to cast their ballots for.听

The results come at a time when Washington is growing grayer: President Joe Biden, for example, is 79 years old, while former President Donald Trump is not far behind at 76. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is 80, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 82.听

The media have taken note: 鈥�,鈥� a New York Post columnist declared. Rival newspaper听The New York Times ran the headline, 鈥�.鈥�

All those articles got Damon Roberts at CU听Boulder wondering: Could these kinds of ageist attitudes have real impacts on Election Day?

In in the journal Political Behavior, he and his colleagues decided to find out. The researchers conducted experiments with voters and drew on extensive survey data of Americans living across the country. Their answer was a resounding 鈥渘ot necessarily.鈥� Younger voters, the team discovered, have historically disapproved more often of the job that older politicians are doing versus that of their more junior colleagues. But they also seem to be just as willing to vote for older candidates.

鈥淔or Biden, that might be a good thing,鈥� said Roberts, a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science and lead author of the new study. 鈥淧eople may talk a lot about his age, but these results would suggest that talk might not translate into votes.鈥�

Are Boomers OK?

For the study, he and Jennifer Wolak, a political scientist formerly at CU Boulder and now at Michigan State University, drew on survey results from Cooperative Election Studies from 2006 to 2020. This dataset tracks attitudes of American voters in Congressional districts around the country. After controlling for factors like incumbency and political ideology, the duo found that younger voters do seem to turn up their noses at older members of Congress.

Eighteen year olds, for example, tend to approve of the job performance of their roughly 30-year-old representatives about 60% of the time. That number drops to 54% when representatives reach 80鈥攁 possible case of 鈥淥K, Boomer鈥� politics in action.

鈥淥lder members of Congress tend to see more punishment,鈥� Roberts said. 鈥淧eople are less likely to say, 鈥楬ey, I like how they're doing.鈥欌��

But the situation might not be that simple: As part of the same research, he and Wolak also conducted an experiment with roughly 1,000 voters online. The team gave this cross-section of America a short vignette describing a hypothetical candidate running for a seat in a state legislature. Not all of the study subjects got the same article: In some cases, they were introduced to a 23-year-old politician. In others, a 50 year old or 77 year old. Study respondents didn鈥檛 seem to have a preference. They reported roughly equal levels of support for each of the faux-candidates.听

Roberts noted political polarization may be responsible for that disconnect. The major political parties are so worried about losing elections, he said, that they throw resources toward whatever candidates they feel will maximize their chances of winning鈥攇ray hairs be damned. 听

鈥淓lections are becoming higher stakes,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou see both parties sending email messages declaring, 鈥楾his is the most important election of your lifetime.鈥� They鈥檝e been saying that for every election for at least the last decade.鈥�

Politics and the brain

The study is the latest in a series by Roberts to explore how politics鈥攁nd the increasingly polarized political environment in the United States鈥攃an shape how humans think.

鈥淚 think a lot of political science research looks at how the brain affects politics,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 more interested in how politics affects the brain.鈥�

In an , for example, he and his colleagues dipped into the contentious debate around 鈥渃ancel culture鈥濃�攁 term popular among conservatives who fear that liberals are censoring anyone who doesn鈥檛 agree with their political ideology. The team probed how these discussions might influence voter attitudes about First Amendment rights. In , he and his colleagues looked at how voters perceive politicians based on the stereotypically 鈥渕asculine鈥� or 鈥渇eminine鈥� language they use.

The researcher added that he鈥檚 not immune to the effects of partisan politics, either.听

鈥淚 sometimes think I鈥檓 a bad political scientist,鈥� he said. 鈥淎 lot of the time when I see the news, I just say 鈥榶uck鈥� and push that notification away.鈥�

That, at least, is something Americans from both sides of aisle can agree on.