Generation Peace White Paper

Generation Peace

Optimism justified. Potential unbound.

Findings of the Shinnyo-en Foundation’s

Generation Peace Survey and Forum on Peace through Community Service

March 2008

Introduction

Can an emerging generation redefine peace, and in the process, help the world achieve it?

In February 2008 the Shinnyo-en Foundation wanted to find out. It commissioned Opinion Research Corporation to conduct a survey of 1786 men and women throughout the United States to gauge generational attitudes and aspirations toward personal harmony and community service.

A secular foundation established in Japan 14 years ago by a lay Buddhist order, the Shinnyo-en Foundation supports education programs that encourage young people to perform meaningful acts of service in their communities — however large or small they choose to define that community, and however large or small that act of service may be. The Foundation recognizes the power of the small step in creating a larger world harmony.

By supporting and encouraging the younger generation in this way, the Foundation seeks to promote harmony and peace. “Peace” is defined not as the absence of war, but in a broader sense of the presence of harmony in one’s life and one’s world.

Executive summary

The Shinnyo-en Foundation has coined the phrase “Generation Peace” to designate people ages 18 to 34 characterized by their independent thinking and creative actions, and who are generous in supporting and encouraging others’ efforts toward attaining personal and community peace. In February 2008 the Foundation commissioned a survey and hosted a forum to learn more about Generation Peace.

Among the findings of the survey were indications that young people are more optimistic than their elders about achieving personal peace. They describe themselves as spiritual rather than religious, and they are redefining community, more by relationships — including virtual ones — than by proximity or location.

On the heels of the survey, and with its findings as a basis for conversation, eight individuals (from teenagers to older adults) from educational, corporate and nonprofit backgrounds were gathered via email and teleconference to participate in a moderated forum, with the goal of articulating the characteristics and implications of Generation Peace. The Forum resulted in the identification of the seven themes detailed in this paper:

1. Generation Peace is interconnected, creative, and powerful
2. “Community” is being redefined
3. Helping can be a habit; engaging has never been easier
4. “Networked individualism” can be a catalyst for change
5. Boomers and Generation Peace are uniquely bonded
6. Explosive choices can be daunting, but accelerate “rites of passage”
7. 9/11 gave Generation Peace its touchstone

Ultimately, the implication is that Generation Peace is uniquely justified in its optimism and prepared to fulfill its potential, but the degree to which it is able to do so depends upon the degree to which it is able to establish a bridge between its unprecedented access and use of virtual resources and meaningful face-to-face encounters.

The Generation Peace Survey

The Foundation’s survey polled two age groups: those 18 to 34 (the group known as Generation Peace) and those 35 and older.

Survey participants were asked to assess their sense of personal peace, their spirituality, their attitudes toward community service and how they define that service, and the extent to which they believe their own communities promotes a sense of peace.

Among the survey’s findings about Generation Peace:

• They are more optimistic than their elders about achieving personal peace.
• They are less likely to link personal peace with economic security.
• They are redefining community, taking it beyond physical boundaries such as neighborhood and instead shaping it more by relationships, including virtual ones.
• They associate community service with charitable support, but also with school-sponsored service projects.
• They describe themselves as spiritual rather than religious.

• They are more likely to expect business and government, rather than religious organizations, to initiate activities that promote peace.
• They have a more global perspective. They are more likely to say that being in the world promotes the achievement of personal peace as compared with being in their community or in the United States. This suggests that Generation Peace looks at things with less of a local or nationalistic perspective and believes that achieving peace has a global scope.
• They and their elders are in agreement in the belief that individual acts of kindness do the most to promote peace in communities.

For a more detailed discussion of the survey findings, please see Appendix C.

The Generation Peace Forum

In late February 2008, with the survey findings as a basis of discussion, the Foundation convened a Forum of experts to probe deeper into the beliefs of Generation Peace: the way that Generation Peace sees itself in the world and the way that older generations see Generation Peace.

The Forum comprised eight individuals representing a cross-section of these generations. They covered the generational spectrum — from teenagers to those with six and seven decades of life experience — and represented the educational, corporate and nonprofit sectors.

Geographically there were thousands of miles between them. Philosophically they were more closely connected: all are engaged in some aspect of community service.

Participants from Generation Peace:

• Brittany Bergquist, high school student and co-founder of Cell Phones for Soldiers
• April Dinwoodie, founder of AdoptMent, a mentoring program for adoptees
• Angela Perez Baraquio Grey, Miss America 2001 and founder of an eponymous foundation that supports character education in the classroom
• Alan Rambam, founder of SHiNE, which conducts workshops on tolerance, nonviolence and self-esteem for youngsters

Participants from earlier generations:

• Kent Koth, director of the Center for Service and Community Engagement at Seattle University
• Carol Orsborn, Ph.D., senior vice president and co-chair of FH-Boom, a specialty practice group within Fleishman-Hillard International Communications that focuses on the issues of baby boomers and intergenerational mentoring
• Len Traubman and Libby Traubman, husband-and-wife co-founders of the Palestinian-Jewish Family Peacemaker’s Camp and the Living Room Dialogue Groups

Profiles of each participant may be found in Appendix B.

The forum first convened electronically, through an email dialogue that began February 25, and then via a one-hour teleconference on February 27. The Forum was moderated by John Armato of Fleishman-Hillard International Communications. A written transcript, complete audio recording, and select audio sound bites from the Forum are available upon request.

What follows are the key themes that emerged from this dialogue.

Theme One: Generation Peace is interconnected, creative, and powerful

Generation Peace is the generation of the double-edged sword, of hope and anxiety; the generation that faces the unknown of the future often by speaking to and confiding in the invisible audiences of the Internet.

This level of trust is a defining feature of Generation Peace. The interconnectedness that drives it gives this generation much of its power.

“They are the innovators and discoverers of this new nervous system that we’re creating of humans connecting to one another,” says Len Traubman.

“They are worldly and they’re speaking. Their capabilities are many, but only if they are given the undergirding and support and mentoring from those of us who’ve paved the path,” says Libby Traubman.

“[They have] an incredible creativity and a great capability of creating some new paradigms for how social change could occur,” says Kent Koth, who adds: “[They’re] rich in knowledge, poor in experience in terms of the direct experiences that they have the opportunity to engage in.”

“[They are] a generation definitely growing up quickly, with a lot of opportunities to try to manage … a lot of potential but definitely a lot of challenges,” says Angela Perez Baraquio Grey.

But despite those challenges, they are curious, idealistic, adaptive, and hopeful.

As Brittany Bergquist says: “Optimistic outlooks and making strides for peace have to start somewhere. Might as well start young!”

Theme Two: “Community” is being redefined

Because of the way that Generation Peace has adapted to — and adopted — the Internet, the concept of community has fundamentally changed. This is the first generation unfettered by geographic ties in terms of social and economic growth. (Consider: if the social-networking site MySpace were a country, it would be the world’s eighth largest.)

A sense of belonging no longer relies on a sense of place. Social networking has changed that, bringing a sense of community and family to a generation that spends more time away from family than any other. Social networking has unlocked the barriers brought on by being physically alone, and they see the relationships that they form in this virtual space as long-lasting ones. “If you happen to lose touch with someone you can easily find them and reconnect,” says April Dinwoodie. “For better or worse, it’s hard to hide.”

But hiding isn’t their goal. Generation Peace uses the absence of physical proximity on the Internet to strengthen intimacy, rather than to encourage anonymity. Dr. Harumitsu Inouye, the executive director of the Shinnyo-en Foundation, calls it the “circle of trust and reflection.”

And while trust becomes paramount, preconceived notions and stereotypes become irrelevant. You may never physically meet the person you’re confiding in, causing racial and ethnic differences to recede into the background. The Internet becomes the tool of transcendence, boring past the prejudice to the essence.

Bergquist experiences this first hand. Her social networking often puts her in touch with teens in the Middle East. “My connections have enabled me to realize that the ‘evil people’ we’re fighting in the Middle East are exactly like the people in my own town,” she says.

And yet here, perhaps more so than in any other area, the double-edged sword shows itself. What is lost — or at least, not realized — by the absence of the physical person in the personal relationship? What wise observations are left unspoken when, as Koth has noted, college students and faculty meet one-on-one less and less? And how much more profound will be the anxiety of “disconnectedness” among those on the unplugged side of the so-called “digital divide”?

The Traubmans’ mission is bringing Muslims, Christians and Jews together. They believe relationships can be sustained virtually, but need to be sparked by in-person contact.

Says Len Traubman: “Today’s needs are to resolve unresolved conflicts that are contentious and protracted. We have to translate these into face-to-face relationships so that there is a heart connection.”

Theme Three: Helping can be a habit; engaging has never been easier

For members of Generation Peace, the intimacy and sense of caring they cultivate online carries beyond their circle of friends to causes. Thanks to the rise of click-to-donate campaigns, virtual foundations and the like, Generation Peace is reshaping philanthropy. Giving becomes a powerful way of taking action, responsibility, ownership.

Alan Rambam calls it “armchair activism,” made all the more effective and meaningful by Generation Peace’s ability to customize a campaign. A social cause promoted on Facebook can draw as many as 2 ½ million responses.

“It’s the ease of being able to go onto a computer and do something good in a fast way,” says Grey.

In a similar vein, members of Generation Peace have already internalized the idea of community service. Service learning has often been a part of their academic experience. It means they are already well-schooled in the habit of community service and the rewards it offers, and they are well-primed to continue those habits and reap those rewards throughout their lives.

Theme Four: “Networked individualism” can be a catalyst for change

“Inner peace usually comes from being heard,” says Len Traubman. “Listening is one of the great acts of love.”

And the catalyst for connectedness.

“Once we feel like someone’s heard us, it resonates, and we feel like a bigger part of something, and we feel encouraged,” says Dinwoodie. Rambam calls it Generation Peace’s “networked individualism: little networks pumping a big global youth brain.”

Connectedness can be the antidote to despair because it promotes “doing.” Koth finds that the optimism of college students flourishes when they are involved in something one-on-one, but fades to hopelessness when faced with larger, systemic issues they feel they can only observe. And yet college freshmen increasingly rank the attainment of inner harmony as vitally important to them, according to a survey by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute. How to reconcile hopelessness with harmony?

Koth encourages students to be activists. “I work with them to understand the role they can play, whether through political involvement or involvement in other forms,” he says. “By weaving the personal and the political together, our individual path to peace can become a collaborative highway for change.”

As listening is the catalyst for connectedness, so is connectedness the catalyst for change on a systemic level. Because of the electronic universe that Generation Peace is not only living in but defining, this generation can engage in what Len Traubman calls the “citizen-driven models of change.” These models initially work outside of established political structures but are what ultimately rebuild these structures.

For Generation Peace, it is grassroots on a global level, thanks to the ability to share first steps and small successes — citizen-driven models of change — with the worldwide community. The Web becomes the ultimate empowerment tool. On the Internet, small things resonate and radiate quickly, and a community of like-minded individuals can give momentum to a movement that can make a difference.

“Individual survival is an illusion — all life is totally interdependent,” says Len Traubman.

Embedded in community — both the word and the idea — is unity. Ultimately this interdependence and connectedness comes full circle: back to the beginning, back to one.

“Start with self first,” says Grey. “That’s the beginning of real world peace.”

Theme Five: Boomers and Generation Peace are uniquely bonded

Generation Peace lives within a larger, multigenerational context. While there is inherent tension among generations, in Generation Peace’s case there is also a unique convergence with the Boom generation —  “the original make-peace-not-war generation,” as Dr. Carol Orsborn points out.

Orsborn, a boomer, watches her own Generation Peace children blurring the lines between life and work, and wonders if there is now a similar convergence between social activism and individual peace. “I think that boomers are proud of the fact that our kids are walking the talk that we talked,” she says. “There’s a tremendous intergenerational connectivity that we ought to be nurturing.”

Perhaps Generation Peace is helping preceding generations remember what it is they left undone. Rambam believes that Generation Peace has unprecedented power in its interconnectedness to continue the work the boomers began, to get behind a message and to take it to the streets — only this time, unlike the 1960s, it’s the “virtual streets.”

It’s a mantle that members of Generation Peace seem able to assume almost effortlessly.

“Even though there is so much turmoil going on around us, I think that teenagers have the ability to sit back and actually analyze what generations before us have done and are doing to the world and to each other,” says Bergquist. “It’s up to young people to act on their own to make a difference.”

Theme Six: Explosive choices can be daunting, but accelerate “rites of passage”

Another aspect of the double-edged sword for Generation Peace is the abundance of information and opportunities available. Every two years, the amount of new information becoming available to the world increases twofold. That’s now. Predictions are that by 2010, twice the amount of new information will be generated every three days.

When is so much too much?

Bergquist sees the plethora of information available on the Internet in part as compensation for the dearth of face-to-face communication. She knows that whatever the question, she can research it on the Web. And yet, just knowing how many college and career choices are available can be daunting. “It’s very intimidating to have to look ahead at your entire life with all of the new information that we’re getting every day,” she says.

Ultimately, however, “information and education nurture hope,” says Dinwoodie. A member of Generation Peace, she has already held a number of different jobs. The result? “It’s given me a holistic view,” she says.”

Grey agrees. “You get to be exposed to a bigger circle of influence,” she says.

Students such as Bergquist can look forward to an ever wider such circle of influence. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that students today will have been in approximately one dozen jobs by the time they’re 38. And a number of these jobs don’t even yet exist.

Such nimbleness in the job market may also be accelerating the pace at which Generation Peace attains maturity. Orsborn likens these job changes to a series of initiation rites, “speeding up the pace at which [younger] people are going through their life stages.”

Additionally, this near-constant exploration may keep members of Generation Peace from defining themselves and their life purpose exclusively by their work. Jobs themselves may undergo a transformation, to better fit within the growing culture of inclusiveness.

What’s needed — and wanted — is more mentoring, both peer-to-peer and intergenerational.

Says Grey: “It’s really what one does with their education, and what one decides to do with knowledge, that leads to either hope or despair.”

For Libby Traubman, the product of an earlier generation, the choice is equally clear: “Speaking for my generation, we have to stay on the path and help Generation Peace hold on to their idealism.”

Theme Seven: 9/11 gave Generation Peace its touchstone

September 11^th was and will remain the defining moment in the coming of age of Generation Peace. As several members of Generation Peace pointed out, it meant that they have come of age that much more quickly.

In fact, Orsborn wonders whether from those fallen towers rose a generation that accelerated to the top of the adult cycle and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where, as she explains, “a sense of the individual and the global begin to merge.”

Rambam describes it as the “watershed event for this generation,” thrusting Generation Peace into a heightened awareness of the larger issues, and instilling a stronger desire to play a role in them.

Once again, the double-edged sword that symbolizes so much of what this generation deals with is present in the aftermath of 9/11. Grey speaks to this, and perhaps for many:

“It was a sense of hopelessness and helplessness and we tried to change that, to say ‘How can we change this to something positive to give back in service, and help others find what our purpose is on this earth?’

“Younger people have been through a lot in the past few years, but there is always hope. And if we are interconnected and we believe that, then we can find a positive way to move forward and find peace.”

Conclusions: Optimism justified; potential unbound

While historically it is the nature of youth to be more optimistic than the aging generation that produced it, Generation Peace is uniquely justified in its optimism and prepared to fulfill its potential. Four primary assets emerged from the Generation Peace survey and Forum that suggest this:

1. Generation Peace has unprecedented access to an unprecedented volume of information, ideas, tools, relationships and opportunities that can be used to actualize personal potential and to effect large-scale change through small and individual steps.
2. Generation Peace is unusually intertwined with the generation that produced it. It is the offspring of the original “peace movement” generation — the boomers — and stands to benefit from their vision, mentoring and encouragement. At the same time, boomers are inclined to look upon Generation Peace with pride and appreciation as it continues in new ways the work the boomers themselves began.
3. The growing shift from single-career lifetimes to multi-career lifetimes creates an opportunity for members of Generation Peace to shift their sense of identity from external occupations to internal aspirations, perhaps pre-empting the optimism-dampening effects of boredom and burnout.
4. Generation Peace is fundamentally the most globally-oriented generation in history. If indeed harmony in the world is predicated in part on deeper appreciation of how people across cultures are more alike than unalike, the potential of this generation to bring individuals and groups together is exponentially multiplied by its innate disregard for physical definitions of community.

There is a caution, however.

The degree to which Generation Peace is able to translate its aspirations into achievements is dependent upon the degree to which it is able to establish a bridge between its incredible bounty of virtual resources and experiences and authentic and meaningful face-to-face encounters. Generation Peace has better tools and better chances to do great things when compared with other generations. But what hasn’t changed is the need to start the journey to peace by looking first inward, and then into the eyes and hearts of fellow human beings.

Appendix A

About the Shinnyo-en Foundation

The Shinnyo-en Foundation seeks to promote harmony and peace through meaningful acts of service. It provides grants, shares resources, and partners with non-profit organizations to support education programs that engage and inspire young people in meaningful acts of service.

The Foundation was established in 1994 by Shinnyo-en, a lay Buddhist denomination originally established in Japan whose members strive to live with the utmost sincerity and respect for others. (Translated from the Japanese, Shinnyo-en means “a borderless garden of truth.”) Shinnyo-en now has temples in many countries.

The Foundation is a secular foundation focused on enabling individuals to improve their communities through service without regard to faith or background. Six Billion Paths to Peace is a major initiative of the Shinnyo-en Foundation that intends to raise people’s awareness of how the small actions people take in their daily life to enhance their own peace and the peace of others have a positive ripple effect in their communities and the world.

On the Web

• The Shinnyo-en Foundation: http://www.sef.org/
• Six Billion Paths to Peace: http://www.sixbillionpaths.org/home.html
• Second Annual Pathfinders to Peace Awards Gala: http://www.pathfinderstopeace.org/

Appendix B

Profiles of Generation Peace Forum participants

Brittany Bergquist

Co-founder, Cell Phones for Soldiers

Teenager Brittany Bergquist and her brother Robbie founded Cell Phones for Soldiers from their home in Norwell, Mass., with $21 of their own money. Since then, the registered 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization has raised approximately $1 million in donations and distributed more than 400,000 prepaid calling cards to soldiers serving overseas. The program is now at 18 sponsors and growing.

April Dinwoodie

Founder, AdoptMent

While searching for her birth family, April Dinwoodie was inspired to create a unique mentoring program to help others on a similar quest. AdoptMent connects adopted adults, or those who spent time in foster care, with young people who are adopted or waiting in foster care. By partnering with Mentoring USA, in just three years AdoptMent has helped countless such mentees and mentors alike.

Kent Koth

Director, Center for Service and Community Engagement

Seattle University

Kent Koth helps to bring alive the mission of Seattle University, which is “dedicated to educating the whole person, to professional formation, and to empowering leaders for a just and humane world.” Focusing on the leadership aspect of the mission, Koth sets the Center’s strategy for the year and works with faculty on identifying ways they can connect their classes with the larger community.

Carol Orsborn, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President and Co-Chair, FH-Boom

Fleishman-Hillard

Dr. Carol Orsborn is known for her work addressing the issues, desires and concerns of the baby boom generation. The author of 15 books, she is most recently the co-author of BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer — the Baby-Boomer Woman. Recently she helped lead a Webinar on “The Great Generational Power Play: Understanding, Reaching and Connecting with the Four-Generation Workplace.”

Angela Perez Baraquio Grey

Founder, Angela Perez Baraquio Education Foundation

Miss America 2001

Angela Perez Baraquio Grey is the first Asian American, and the first teacher, to be crowned Miss America. She used her role to create a “classroom” of a different kind, traveling across the country to help make character education an integral part of schools’ curriculum. She was appointed by President Bush in June 2006 to be a member of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. Her foundation provides scholarships and grants in the area of character education for students and teachers.

Alan Rambam

Founder, SHiNE: Seeking Harmony in Neighborhoods Everyday

SHiNE reaches out to school-aged children throughout the United States to encourage them to participate in workshops on three critical subjects: tolerance, nonviolence and self-esteem. Upon completing these courses, children sign the SHiNE Unity Pledge that confirms their understanding of what they have learned and commits them to act positively and responsibly concerning issues on diversity, racial unity, nonviolence and tolerance. Alan Rambam is the founder of SHiNE. In just three years, he has secured $6 million in youth cause-marketing partnerships/sponsorships and $30 million in media support from such major players in the youth market as Procter & Gamble, Kodak, Levi’s, AOL Time Warner, MTV and Nintendo. He has also garnered support from a number of noted celebrities. Rambam is a recipient of the Theodor Herzl Award from the State of Israel for his outstanding humanitarian efforts.

Len and Libby Traubman

Co-founders, Palestinian-Jewish Family Peacemaker’s Camp

On Labor Day week 2006, the husband-and-wife team of Len and Libby Traubman gathered together 255 Jews and Palestinians for the largest-ever Palestinian-Jewish Family Peacemaker’s Camp in the country. It is the only cross-generational residential camp of its kind in North America, and perhaps anywhere. The Traubmans partnered with Camp Tawonga, an 85-year-old Jewish community camp, to bring together these men and women, including 50 from 29 towns in the Holy Land. The Traubmans also co-founded the 14-year-old Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group on the San Francisco Peninsula. The group consists of Holocaust refugees and twentieth-generation Palestinians. Similar groups are in place across North America and beyond.

Appendix C

Survey findings in detail

Following is a closer look at some of the key findings of the Generation Peace survey.

Optimism

The percentage of people in Generation Peace who expect to be completely at peace in 5 years is triple the number who say they are at peace today (12% compared to 36%). The number of people age 35 and older who expect to be at peace in 5 years is less than double that of those who say they’re at peace today (17% compared to 33%). This suggests Generation Peace is more optimistic than older age groups about achieving personal peace in the future.

Economic security

Generation Peace is less likely than older age groups to say that economic security is a very important aspect of “personal peace” in their lives. 65% of those ages 18-34 said that having economic security was very important to them. This is somewhat lower than the 71% of those over age 35 who said that economic security was a very important aspect of their personal peace. The biggest difference was between women over the age of 35 (76%) and men of Generation Peace (62%). This suggests not only an understandable influence life stage may have on attitudes toward inner peace, but may suggest that attitudes differ by gender as well.

Definition of community

When asked to rate on a scale from 1 to 5 where they feel they are part of an active community, members of Generation Peace say they feel like a more active part of a community when they are at work (average score of 3.1 vs. 2.8 for older age groups) or online (average score of 2.7 vs. 2.4 for older age groups) than those age 35 and older. People age 35 and older are more likely than Generation Peace to say they feel part of a community in their neighborhood (average score of 3.0 vs. 2.8 for Generation Peace) or at their religious place of worship (average score of 3.0 vs. 2.8). This suggests that the definition of community is changing. For Generation Peace, community is less likely to mean face-to-face interaction and proximity to home. Therefore, community is becoming defined less by proximity and more by relationships.

Community service

Generation Peace and older age groups are mostly aligned in their perceptions of community service. “Supporting charities” was the prevalent understanding of community service in the survey. But while previous research has shown that volunteerism rates are at historically high levels among both adult and youth populations, the survey indicates that Generation Peace (17%) is much more likely than older age groups (7%) to associate the phrase “community service” specifically with youth groups doing volunteer projects to earn credit or achieve goals. Previous research has suggested that this may be, in part, because of an increase in service-learning programs in schools and colleges that combine classroom study with community activity.

Who should lead?

Members of Generation Peace (30%) are less likely than older groups (40%) to perceive religious leaders as doing the most now to promote personal peace. Similarly, when asked who they think should be doing the most to promote personal peace, only 24% of Generation Peace (vs. 35% of older people) agreed it should be religious leaders. People from both groups thought politicians and community leaders should be doing the most. Even though they are likely to say they are as spiritual as their parents, the survey suggests Generation Peace is not relying as heavily as older people on religion to achieve personal peace.

Activities that bring peace

Both age groups agree that individual acts of kindness do the most to promote peace and harmony in their communities. Generation Peace, however, is more likely than older people to believe that participation in activities initiated by employers (average score of 2.8 vs. 2.6 on a five-point scale) and activities initiated by government organizations (average score of 2.8 vs. 2.7 on a five-point scale) promote a sense of community peace and harmony. In contrast, those age 35 and older are more likely than Generation Peace to say that activities initiated by religious organizations promote a sense of community peace and harmony (average score of 3.4 vs. 3.2 on a five-point scale). Once again, while perceiving themselves as just as spiritual as older age groups, it appears Generation Peace is less reliant on religious organizations to bring peace to their communities. This is consistent with other research showing a decline in volunteering through churches.

Community vs. nation vs. world

When asked to what degree they felt that being in their community, the nation, or the world promotes the achievement of personal peace, people age 35 and older were more likely than Generation Peace to say that being in their community (42% vs. 36%) or in the United States (46% vs. 34%) either strongly or somewhat promotes the achievement of personal peace. In contrast, members of Generation Peace are more likely than older age groups to say that being in the world (30% vs. 24%) promotes the achievement of personal peace. This suggests that Generation Peace looks at things with less of a local or nationalistic perspective and believes that achieving peace has a global scope.

Appendix D

Generation Peace Survey research methods

The “Generation Peace” survey was commissioned by the Shinnyo-en Foundation. The survey questions were designed by the Research Division of Fleishman-Hillard International Communications. The survey was fielded and tabulated by Opinion Research Corporation.

The survey was conducted among a sample of 1,786 adults comprising 847 men and 939 women 18 years of age and older.

The online omnibus study is conducted twice a week among a demographically representative U.S. sample of 1,000 adults 18 years of age and older using Greenfield Online sample. Interviewing for this survey was completed across three waves from February 7 through February 17, 2008.

• On the first two waves, the questions were asked only of 696 people age 18 to 34.
• On the third wave, the questions were asked of all 1,090 participants so that comparisons could be made between younger adults and others age 35 and older.

Completed interviews are weighted by four variables: age, sex, geographic region, and race, to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population, 18 years of age and older. The raw data are weighted by a custom-designed program which automatically develops a weighting factor for each respondent. Each respondent is assigned a single weight derived from the relationship between the actual proportion of the population based on U.S. Census data with its specific combination of age, sex, geographic characteristics and race and the proportion in the sample. Tabular results show both weighted and unweighted bases. For this survey sample, young adults were over-sampled. The weighting procedures compensate for this by calculating an appropriately lesser weight for young adults and a corresponding greater weight for older adults.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have volunteered to participate in online surveys and polls. The data have been weighted to reflect the demographic composition of the 18+ population. Because the sample is based on those who initially self-selected for participation, no estimates of sampling error can be calculated. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to multiple sources of error, including, but not limited to sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments.