Why millennials might actually be better than older generations

Millennials carry out more good deeds than any older generation, according to a new survey.

They may have a reputation for being entitled, but millennials report doing 339 modern-day “good deeds” a month, compared to 208 good deeds for those age 38 and older.

From sending a kind text to picking up trash, shopping at small businesses or being a shoulder to cry on, the study tallied kind deeds big and small.

Commissioned by Pact and conducted by OnePoll, the survey of 2,000 Americans — 1,000 millennials and 1,000 aged 38 and older — examined where people think they do “good deeds” in their day-to-day life and compiled those that are most commonly done.

For millennials and older generations alike, many of the common good deeds were also related to being environmentally friendly.

Results showed that while millennials are more likely to try and be environmentally conscious (83 percent vs. 77 percent), they’re also realistic about the sometimes contradictory reality of striving to do good.

Millennials are more likely to report doing environmentally unfriendly things out of necessity (53 percent vs. 31 percent), but also feel more guilt when doing things that aren’t considered environmentally friendly (73 percent vs 57 percent).

When shopping with Amazon Prime, millennials feel more than three times as guilty as the non-millennials surveyed (17 percent vs. 5 percent) and were more than twice as likely to feel guilty when buying non-organic clothing (20 percent vs. 8 percent).

“Paradoxically, the ability to make big change comes through small acts,” said Kamie Kennedy, chief revenue officer of the organic clothing company Pact. “When a consumer chooses the eco-friendly option, the manufacturers of those products can aggregate all of that consumer preference and force real change in industries, labor practices and health standards. While choices are made individually, change is made collectively.”

Millennials were also more likely to agree that small steps can make a major environmental impact (83 percent vs. 77 percent), which may be why they do so many small good deeds per month.

And results found that millennials are much more likely to be participants in the share economy.

This includes being more likely to share a taxi or ride with strangers (59 percent vs. 26 percent), hire someone from an app (29 percent vs. 12 percent) and work in a shared workspace (43 percent vs. 21 percent).

Interestingly enough, millennials are more like to agree that the little things they do right cancel out their bad habits (55 percent vs. 30 percent).

When it comes to their shopping habits, results found that millennials are value-driven and work to avoid businesses that support things they don’t agree with (68 percent vs. 46 percent).

They’re also about twice as likely to buy organically-sourced food (11 percent vs. 6 percent) and organically-sourced clothing (10 percent vs. 4 percent).

“Just like they have done with food, people are getting curious about what’s in their clothes. Over 80 billion garments are sold every year and cotton, the dominant ingredient in clothes, is one of the world’s dirtiest crops,” said Kennedy. “Imagine the impact of opting for organic cotton in your wardrobe — even something as simple as changing your underwear can save tens of gallons of water per pair alone.”

In good news for the environment though, three-quarters of respondents agree that they have become more environmentally friendly in the past five years.