The focus group analysis made clear that some formative referents related to society as a whole. For each cohort, society’s values, employment, education opportunities, and economic condition during the formative years are particularly salient memories of the past. Likewise, influences of a person’s family and life during the formative years are also important. These shared memories of the past structure the formative referents for each generational cohort. This finding supports the foundational premise of the literature on generational cohorts: the formative years play an important role in shaping lifelong beliefs, attitudes, and behavior.
However, this study extends this literature by identifying that societal and personal influences are the key formative referents in shaping the generational mindset, dismissing previous notions that macro events during the formative years have a profound and long-term influence on the generational mindset. Although this premise has been previ- ously suspected among generational cohort researchers (Noble and Schewe 2003; Schuman and Scott 1989), this study presents the first empirical evidence validating the role formative referents play in both travel and more general consumer decision making.