The generation of young people known as millennials — those born between 1980 and 1994 — are more likely to identify as conservatives than Generation Xers or Baby Boomers did at the same age, a new psychology study revealed.

"The current view of millennials as liberals might be due to their age — young people are more likely to be liberal," said Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, CNN reported.



"But if you compare young people now to young people in previous decades, those now are more conservative."

The study, published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, also found Americans today are more politically polarized now than they have been in the past 46 years.

"This is intriguing because it suggests that Americans are becoming increasingly divided over a relatively small number of differences," Ryne Sherman, associate professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University and co-author of the study, told CNN.

"Small differences between groups can give rise to polarization as leaders repeatedly emphasize these small differences and members rally around them."