The Experiences that Most Affected the Political Socialization of US Undergraduates

Most articles about the Gen Z’s political beliefs focus a lot on what they believe, but not so much on how they came to or why they hold those beliefs. Through a series of interviews and one focus group meeting, I investigated what events or experiences were most instrumental in shaping the beliefs of some current US undergraduate students. I found that experiences with very strong personal impacts were the most influential in shaping the participants’ current beliefs; experiences in which they or those close to them were negatively misrepresented or in which they began to distrust certain authority figures or groups were some common examples mentioned. This research highlights some crucial moments in the political socialization of some Gen Z students, and more broadly hints at the types of events and experiences that shaped this generation, politically