Respect Your Elders? The Economic Origins and Political Consequences of Attitudes Toward the Aged

Abstract

Respect for elders (or lack thereof) is a central pillar of many social structures, where norms range from filial piety to geronticide. Despite their importance and substantial cultural variation, these beliefs are not well understood. What caused this variation, and what consequences do these beliefs have today? To answer this question, I create a measure of historical attitudes toward elders based on over 400 folklore motifs spanning 1,200 cultures. I first validate the persistence of this measure using data on modern beliefs, including on implicit bias and old-age mortality. Then, guided by models from evolutionary anthropology, I examine the hypothesis that the valuation of elders is related to the applicability of their experience within the next generation. Using environmental stability and the complexity of tradition as instruments, I provide estimates which suggest a causal interpretation of my results. Next, I examine contemporary consequences of these norms. First, I associate higher valuation of elders with older elected leaders at both the between- and within-country level. Motivated by the implication in my model that traditionalism and deference to elders makes gerontocracy more desirable, I show an association between positive norms toward elders and lower ancestral and contemporary democracy. I use this fact to motivate an instrumented mediation analysis model to further test my findings, and finally provide additional evidence by associating positive attitudes with a lower likelihood for the onset of democracy.