Education Fosters Political Polarization

[Nakosis]

For me, it has had the opposite effect. I was a flaming Socialist in my teens, a card-carrying Liberal up to my mid 30's and eventually slid to the dark side once I was north of 40. Throughout that time I've never stopped trying to educate myself and have always been a voracious reader.

I think that's the key, you educated yourself.

 

[Quintessence]

It could be that the "better" we are at reasoning, the better we are at justifying out ideologically conceived notions and presumptions and the better we are at finding fault with opposing views that we do not want to agree with.

Also perhaps that it makes people trust their own judgement better, and thus increases levels of intellectual arrogance.

That's an interesting point. Information literacy is important now more than ever, and one of the lessons you can pull out of studying it is how arguments can be made for just about everything (complete with citations). Those with more education would be better at constructing such arguments, both for and against any particular ideological perspective.

The arrogance component is interesting. On the one hand, I get where you're going with that. On the other, my experience going through levels of education was realizing how much I didn't know - that I didn't even know I didn't know - and feeling stupider at each level. Haha.

Thanks for the related references, by the way. More reading!

 

[sealchan]

Every so often, I run across something that is so intriguingly counterintuitive at first brush that it makes me go "wow, really?" Enter one of today's opinion pieces on the New York Times which examines the relationship between a person's level of education and the strength of political affiliations:

"Should taxes on households making $250,000 or more a year be raised? When you ask Democrats this question, you get a very interesting answer: Those on the bottom of the income distribution appear to want lower taxes on high earners than those on the top do.

Among Democrats making less than $30,000, 48 percent say yes; among those making more than $75,000, 68 percent do, according to data provided to The Times by Bridget Johnson of the Pew Research Center. Among Democrats with high school degrees, 48 percent say yes; among those with college degrees, it’s 71 percent."
From - Opinion | Which Side Are You On?
​

Really? Yes, really. But the story gets more interesting. This graph included with the article uncovers what's going on with these strange numbers:

Opinion | Which Side Are You On?​

Really? Yes, really. I'm still scratching my head a bit at this one. Education is associated with bias and prejudice? What? Isn't education supposed to do the opposite?

Yes, but in this case the bias is towards being open to possibilities (educated, liberal) vs being closed (uneducated, conservative). Another way to look at it is that the more educated you are the more likely you are able to self-confidently transcend traditional authority because you can see that authority rooted in a history which shows that authority is made by those in authority for motives peculiar as much to themselves as to any supposed traditional principles.

Conservatives tend to xenophobia, judgment and "the law" while liberals enjoy the diversity, perspective and exceptions to the rules.

I find it problematic to say that liberals are extreme when they promote equal rights. It is just that they get so bent out of shape because they know history is on their side and descriminating against race or sexuality or whatever will inevitably become the new conservative...they see the injustice that exists today and just don't want to wait for it to change.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Every so often, I run across something that is so intriguingly counterintuitive at first brush that it makes me go "wow, really?" Enter one of today's opinion pieces on the New York Times which examines the relationship between a person's level of education and the strength of political affiliations:

"Should taxes on households making $250,000 or more a year be raised? When you ask Democrats this question, you get a very interesting answer: Those on the bottom of the income distribution appear to want lower taxes on high earners than those on the top do.

Among Democrats making less than $30,000, 48 percent say yes; among those making more than $75,000, 68 percent do, according to data provided to The Times by Bridget Johnson of the Pew Research Center. Among Democrats with high school degrees, 48 percent say yes; among those with college degrees, it’s 71 percent."
From - Opinion | Which Side Are You On?
​

Really? Yes, really. But the story gets more interesting. This graph included with the article uncovers what's going on with these strange numbers:

Opinion | Which Side Are You On?​

Really? Yes, really. I'm still scratching my head a bit at this one. Education is associated with bias and prejudice? What? Isn't education supposed to do the opposite?

I'd be interested to know the sample sizes with each group. I'd also be interested to know the past political affiliation of individuals that participated.

I wonder if the effect here isn't so much "if a strong conservative goes to college, they'll acquire more conservative bias" as it is "people who go into college as strong conservatives with low-ish bias tend to mostly come out moderates, so the strong conservatives who are still conservatives after graduation have a higher average bias overall."

 

[WalterTrull]

Now see, I am short

Figures. (ducking and running for exit)

 

[joe1776]

Maybe the Pew study is giving us a graph on the progress of the confirmation bias: as more educated people debate and discuss their positions, they become more and more certain that they're right..

 

[Revoltingest]

Every so often, I run across something that is so intriguingly counterintuitive at first brush that it makes me go "wow, really?" Enter one of today's opinion pieces on the New York Times which examines the relationship between a person's level of education and the strength of political affiliations:

"Should taxes on households making $250,000 or more a year be raised? When you ask Democrats this question, you get a very interesting answer: Those on the bottom of the income distribution appear to want lower taxes on high earners than those on the top do.

Among Democrats making less than $30,000, 48 percent say yes; among those making more than $75,000, 68 percent do, according to data provided to The Times by Bridget Johnson of the Pew Research Center. Among Democrats with high school degrees, 48 percent say yes; among those with college degrees, it’s 71 percent."
From - Opinion | Which Side Are You On?
​

Really? Yes, really. But the story gets more interesting. This graph included with the article uncovers what's going on with these strange numbers:

Opinion | Which Side Are You On?​

Really? Yes, really. I'm still scratching my head a bit at this one. Education is associated with bias and prejudice? What? Isn't education supposed to do the opposite?

I'm not at all surprised by this.
I'd long ago created a faux thought experiment involving Milton Friedman & Paul Krugman.
The former is known for libertarian economic thought, while the latter is authoritarian.
Young Miltie had this orientation before embarking on his PhD, & his schooling supported
his pre-existing orientation. Young Paul was a leftie before he entered school, & his
education enhanced his pre-existing bias. Both became more entrenched in their views.

 

[Augustus]

The arrogance component is interesting. On the one hand, I get where you're going with that. On the other, my experience going through levels of education was realizing how much I didn't know - that I didn't even know I didn't know - and feeling stupider at each level. Haha.

Educated people often have highly specialised knowledge, which doesn't necessarily mean they are highly knowledgeable in general. Realising how much you don't know is usually a sign of knowledge, you need to know a lot before you realise how little you know.

Educated people are more likely to have a middling level of knowledge in things, which can often be the stage of most overconfidence in how much you know.

So when you get into the world of 'average' educated people...

 

[suncowiam]

Maybe it increases certainty. That would be my guess.

I was kind of alluding to certainty with my reference to confidence. Or more accurately, false sense of confidence. Or a false sense of certainty.

Thanks

 

[Revoltingest]

For me, it has had the opposite effect. I was a flaming Socialist in my teens, a card-carrying Liberal up to my mid 30's and eventually slid to the dark side once I was north of 40. Throughout that time I've never stopped trying to educate myself and have always been a voracious reader.

Was your transmogrification due to schooling or work experience?
The latter made me into a raving capitalist.

 

[suncowiam]

Some of that is elaborated on both in the opinion piece and the main study they pulled this from (see Education is Related to Greater Ideological Prejudice | Public Opinion Quarterly | Oxford Academic if you're able). It's been well-established for decades now that education has a negative relationship with prejudice (that is, the more educated you are, the less prejudiced you are). This has held steady across a wide array of prejudices, ranging from religious prejudice to to racial prejudice. But, as the study points out, this hadn't really been looked at for political prejudices. They found results that bucked an otherwise well-established trend:

"Results from our analyses of nationally representative data of Americans collected over 40 years yielded clear and consistent support for our hypothesis that, in contrast to interethnic bias, which is negatively related to education, ideological prejudice is stronger among those with high (vs. low) levels of education. These results call into question the notion that education promotes tolerance toward those who are different."
Education is Related to Greater Ideological Prejudice | Public Opinion Quarterly | Oxford Academic
​

They offer a couple different explanations for this. I'd quote the whole thing for those who don't have access to the article, but it's kind of long so I'll summarize:

1. Education serves to refine our ideologies. Therefore, the more education we have, the more our political orientation will be tethered to deeply held moral values (aka, have a polarizing effect).
2. Almost all research on the negative relationship between education and prejudice has looked at socially devalued or marginalized groups. Liberals and conservatives are not socially devalued or marginalized groups, so education doesn't incline people to reduce their prejudice of groups that are opposed to their ideologies.

Thank you for summarizing as I just do not have time to read all the articles now.

My problem with this research is that it is labeling something so complex as education as a cause.

If some how, it can break down the education to specifics: colleges, degrees, classes, studies, and so on. Is the IQ of a person? Is it the professions related to the IQ or the degrees required for those professions.

I think it would paint a better picture, one that would help us come to a conclusion.

I personally feel there are many other factors in play.

I believe the correlation. I'm just skeptical if it is a direct correlation.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Except, apparently, on political affiliation. That's what's remarkable about this study.

I'm stil not sure how they could have arrived at that conclusion. It seems to me that the article supports the idea that the extreme ends of the distribution are further apart, but they don't say anything about the curve between those extremes.

So an extreme liberal with a college education is more extreme than an extreme liberal without high school... but is the same proprtion of the two groups an extreme liberal?

 

[Polymath257]

Very interesting. But I think I can reconcile the increase of political division and the lessening of other sorts of prejudice with education.

For example, consider racism. As one becomes more educated, it is clear that a wide variety of people from a very wide variety of ethnic background have contributed to knowledge, art, music, and general culture. The same is true for other sorts of prejudice. Factors such as skin color just seem less relevant in a larger context.

But, when it comes to *political* prejudice, the issue is more a question of basic values instead of realizing who has done what. And it is then easier to see history as a grand battle between competing values, which tends to lead to less trust of those on the 'other side'.

And values are much harder to 'educate' into agreement.

 

[sealchan]

Okay, I can see that I missed the point...the conservatives became more extremely conservative...

I guess this shows that in general education is not liberal OR it shows that the choice of career path precludes college degrees that might displease conservative or liberal degree seekers.

 

[David T]

Every so often, I run across something that is so intriguingly counterintuitive at first brush that it makes me go "wow, really?" Enter one of today's opinion pieces on the New York Times which examines the relationship between a person's level of education and the strength of political affiliations:

"Should taxes on households making $250,000 or more a year be raised? When you ask Democrats this question, you get a very interesting answer: Those on the bottom of the income distribution appear to want lower taxes on high earners than those on the top do.

Among Democrats making less than $30,000, 48 percent say yes; among those making more than $75,000, 68 percent do, according to data provided to The Times by Bridget Johnson of the Pew Research Center. Among Democrats with high school degrees, 48 percent say yes; among those with college degrees, it’s 71 percent."
From - Opinion | Which Side Are You On?
​

Really? Yes, really. But the story gets more interesting. This graph included with the article uncovers what's going on with these strange numbers:

Opinion | Which Side Are You On?​

Really? Yes, really. I'm still scratching my head a bit at this one. Education is associated with bias and prejudice? What? Isn't education supposed to do the opposite?

Exact problem. A highly educated society will eventually collapse on.It's own b.s.. if education itself.is not understood more.clearly and no.we don't need more.educated b.s. studying the topic and getting back.to.us.
Education is fine but it is also problematic.

 

[Quintessence]

Exact problem. A highly educated society will eventually collapse on.It's own b.s.. if education itself.is not understood more.clearly and no.we don't need more.educated b.s. studying the topic and getting back.to.us.
Education is fine but it is also problematic.

I almost hate to say this, but I could take this perspective more seriously if it was presented in a way that reflected proper use of the English language. The basic ability to communicate effectively with another human being is a function of education. We do, apparently, need more of that. I could barely understand what you were trying to say here, no offense (especially if you're ESL).

 

[WalterTrull]

(especially if you're ESL).

I had to look that up. Got it. Looking back at some of my posts, that might be thought about me. No matter. My hunch is that David T has a pretty thick skin.

 

[David T]

I almost hate to say this, but I could take this perspective more seriously if it was presented in a way that reflected proper use of the English language. The basic ability to communicate effectively with another human being is a function of education. We do, apparently, need more of that. I could barely understand what you were trying to say here, no offense (especially if you're ESL).

And thank you for the verification proof that the study is accurate!!! Smmmmaaaart peopel ah suckas for proper.

 

[idav]

Every so often, I run across something that is so intriguingly counterintuitive at first brush that it makes me go "wow, really?" Enter one of today's opinion pieces on the New York Times which examines the relationship between a person's level of education and the strength of political affiliations:

"Should taxes on households making $250,000 or more a year be raised? When you ask Democrats this question, you get a very interesting answer: Those on the bottom of the income distribution appear to want lower taxes on high earners than those on the top do.

Among Democrats making less than $30,000, 48 percent say yes; among those making more than $75,000, 68 percent do, according to data provided to The Times by Bridget Johnson of the Pew Research Center. Among Democrats with high school degrees, 48 percent say yes; among those with college degrees, it’s 71 percent."
From - Opinion | Which Side Are You On?
​

Really? Yes, really. But the story gets more interesting. This graph included with the article uncovers what's going on with these strange numbers:

Opinion | Which Side Are You On?​

Really? Yes, really. I'm still scratching my head a bit at this one. Education is associated with bias and prejudice? What? Isn't education supposed to do the opposite?

I don’t know what the line colors are supposed to mean but seems pretty misleading considering most people are moderate.

 

[tytlyf]

Chart doesn't make sense. It's proven the higher education levels a person has, the more likely they'll vote democratic. I've never met a 'extreme conservative' with a college education. Those people usually hate education.