A recent survey by Monitoring the Future, an academic project that has been studying American youth for decades, found that 23% of 12th grade boys identified as conservative in 2022, while only 13% described themselves as liberal.
The study, by the University of Michigan, was first conducted in 1976, at which point just 17% of high school boys saw themselves as conservative and 25% identified as liberal.
Conservative identification went up among young men in the 80s and early 90s but had hit a steady decline until recent years showed a new trend to the right.
Their female peers, meanwhile, have gone more to the left, with 30% identifying as liberal in 2022, compared to 12% conservative.