iGen or shy Gen? Generational Differences in Shyness
研究比较了千禧一代和Z世代（疫情前后）在羞怯水平上的差异，发现Z世代羞怯程度显著更高，且疫情期间的Z世代羞怯水平最高。
Generation Z (1997–2012) has been characterized in the popular media as more socially inhibited, cautious, and risk averse than prior generations, but are these differences found between generations on an empirical level? And, if so, are these differences observable within generations in response to acute events such as the COVID-19 pandemic? Using a simplified time-lagged design to control for age effects, we examined between-group differences in self-reported shyness in young adult participants ( N = 806, age: 17–25 years) at the same developmental age and university from the millennial generation (tested: 1999–2001; n = 266, M age = 19.67 years, 72.9% female) and Generation Z (tested: 2018–2020), the latter generation stratified into prepandemic ( n = 263, M = 18.86 years, 82.4% female) and midpandemic ( n = 277, M age = 18.67 years, 79.6% female) groups. After first establishing measurement invariance to ensure trustworthy group comparisons, we found significantly higher mean levels of shyness across each successive cohort, starting with millennials, through Generation Z before the pandemic, to Generation Z during the pandemic.