Today’s young people (youth and young adults) are routinely understood in generational terms, constructed as narcissistic and selfish in comparison with their predecessors. Despite announcements of a weakening commitment to values of kindness and generosity, there is little empirical research that examines these trends. The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes shows that young people are more likely to be kind but are less likely to think most Australians are kind. This article investigates this tension using focus groups with Australians of different ages (corresponding to major generational groupings) and drawing on the sociology of generations. To differentiate between generation, period and age/life-cycle effects requires longitudinal methods. However, these qualitative data suggest that a ‘generationalist’ discourse of young people as narcissistic is powerful in Australia and that young people are both internalising and challenging this framing. They appear to be responding to common experiences of growing up with the social and economic uncertainties of an ‘until-further-notice’ world and express strong support for values of kindness and openness to difference.

今天的年轻人（青年和年轻人）通常是代代相传的，与前辈相比，自恋和自私。尽管宣布减弱了对善良和慷慨价值观的承诺，但很少有实证研究来检验这些趋势。《澳大利亚社会态度调查》显示，年轻人更容易成为善良的人，却不太可能认为大多数澳大利亚人是善良的。本文使用不同年龄的澳大利亚人（对应于主要的世代群体）的焦点小组并利用世代的社会学来调查这种紧张关系。为了区分世代，时期和年龄/生命周期效应，需要纵向方法。然而，这些定性数据表明，在澳大利亚，年轻人对自恋的“世代相传”作用很强，年轻人正在内化和挑战这一框架。他们似乎是对成长中的共同经验的回应，那里的社会和经济前景不确定，直到“进一步通知”的世界，并表达了对善良和差异开放的价值观的坚决支持。