In this article, we examine the nature of the relationship between educational attainment and ideology. Some scholars have argued that the effect of education on political variables like ideology is inflated due to unaccounted-for family factors, such as genetic predispositions and parental socialization. Using the discordant twin design and data from a large sample of Danish twins, we find that after accounting for confounders rooted in the family, education has a (quasi)-causal effect on economic ideology, but not social ideology. We also examine whether the relationship between education and economic ideology is moderated by levels of economic hardship in the local context where individuals reside. We find that the (quasi)-causal effect of education on economic ideology increases in economically challenged areas.
AlesinaALa FerraraE (2005) Preferences for Redistribution in the Land of Opportunities. Journal of Public Economics89: 897–931.
2.
AlfordJRCarolynLFunk JohnR, et al. (2005) Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?American Political Science Review2: 153–167.
3.
BarthDPapageorgeNWThomK (2020) Genetic Endowments and Wealth Inequality. Journal of Political Economy128: 1474–1522.
4.
BelskyDWDomingueBWWedowR, et al. (2018) Genetic Analysis of Social-Class Mobility in Five Longitudinal Studies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences115: E7275–E7284.
5.
BerinskyALenzG (2011) Education and Political Participation: Exploring the Causal Link. Political Behavior33: 357–373.
6.
BooksJPrysbyC (1999) Contextual Effects on Retrospective Economic Evaluations: The Impact of the State and Local Economy. Political Behavior21: 1–16.
BraniganARMcCallumKJFreeseJ (2013) Variation in the Heritability of Educational Attainment: An International Meta-analysis. Social Forces92: 109–140.
9.
CampbellDE (2009) Civic Engagement and Education: An Empirical Test of the Sorting Model. American Journal of Political Science53: 771–786.
10.
CarlinJBGurrinLCSterneJA, et al. (2005) Regression Models for Twin Studies: A Critical Review. International Journal of Epidemiology34: 1089–1099.
11.
CaugheyDO’GradyTWarshawC (2019) Policy Ideology in European Mass Publics, 1981–2016. American Political Science Review113: 674–693.
12.
ChristensenKPetersenISkyttheA, et al. (2006) Comparison of Academic Performance of Twins and Singletons in Adolescence: Follow-Up Study. British Medical Journal333: 1095.
13.
ConversePE (1972) Change in the American Electorate. In: CampbellAConversePE (eds) The Human Meaning of Social Change. New York: Russel Sage Foundation, pp.263–339.
14.
DawesCWeinschenkA (2020) On the Genetic Basis of Political Orientation. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences34: 173–178.
15.
DearyIJPenkeLJohnsonW (2010) The Neuroscience of Human Intelligence Differences. Nature Reviews Neuroscience11: 201–211.
16.
DeeTS (2004) Are There Civic Returns to Education?Journal of Public Economics88: 1697–1720.
17.
DinesenPTDawesCTJohannessonM, et al. (2016) Estimating the Impact of Education on Political Participation: Evidence from Monozygotic Twins in the United States, Denmark and Sweden. Political Behavior38: 579–601.
18.
DunnK (2011) Left-Right Identification and Education in Europe: A Contingent Relationship. Comparative European Politics9: 292–316.
19.
EavesLMartinNHeathA, et al. (1997) Age Changes in the Causes of Individual Differences in Conservatism. Behavior Genetics27: 121–124.
20.
FeldmanSJohnstonC (2014) Understanding the Determinants of Political Ideology: Implications of Structural Complexity. Political Psychology35: 337–358.
21.
FongC (2001) Social Preferences, Self-Interest, and the Demand for Redistribution. Journal of Public Economics82: 225–246.
22.
FriesenAKsiazkiewiczA (2015) Do Political Attitudes and Religiosity Share a Genetic Path?Political Behavior37: 791–818.
23.
FrisellTÖbergSKuja-HalkolaR, et al. (2012) Sibling Comparison Designs: Bias from Non-shared Confounders and Measurement Error. Epidemiology23: 713–720.
24.
GaasholtØTogebyL (1995) Interethnic Tolerance, Education, and Political Orientation: Evidence from Denmark. Political Behavior17: 265–285.
25.
GalstonWA (2001) Political Knowledge, Political Engagement, and Civic Education. Annual Review of Political Science4: 217–234.
26.
GidengilETarkiainenLWassH, et al. (2019) Turnout and Education: Is Education Proxying for Pre-adult Experiences within the Family?Political Science Research and Methods7: 349–365.
27.
HatemiPKMedlandSEKlemmensenR, et al. (2014.) Genetic Influences on Political Ideologies: Twin Analyses of 19 Measures of Political Ideologies from Five Democracies and Genome-Wide Findings from Three Populations. Behavior Genetics44: 282–294.
28.
HelliwellJFPutnamRD (2007) Education and Social Capital. Eastern Economic Journal33: 1–19.
29.
HibbsDA (1977) Political Parties and Macroeconomic Policy. The American Political Science Review71: 1467–1487.
30.
HibbsDARiversRDVasilatosN (1982) The Dynamics of Political Support for American Presidents among Occupational and Partisan Groups. American Journal of Political Science26: 312–332.
31.
HightonB (2009) Revisiting the Relationship between Educational Attainment and Political Sophistication. Journal of Politics71: 1564–1576.
32.
HymanHHWrightCR (1979) Education’s Lasting Influence on Values. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
33.
IsacssonG (1999) Estimates of the Return to Schooling in Sweden from a Large Sample of Twins. Labour Economics6: 471–489.
34.
JackmanMRMuhaMJ (1984) Education and Intergroup Attitudes: Moral Enlightenment, Superficial Democratic Commitment, or Ideological Refinement?American Sociological Review49: 751–769.
35.
JenningsMKNiemiRG (1968) The Transmission of Political Values from Parent to Child. The American Political Science Review62: 169–184.
36.
JenningsMKStokerLBowersJ (2009) Politics across Generations: Family Transmission Reexamined. Journal of Politics71: 782–799.
37.
JohnsonW (2007.) Genetic and Environmental Influences on Behavior: Capturing All the Interplay. Psychological Review114: 423.
38.
JohnstonCDOllerenshawT (2020) How Different Are Cultural and Economic Ideology?Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences34: 94–101.
39.
JohnstonRPattieCDorlingD, et al. (2000) Local Context, Retrospective Economic Evaluations, and Voting: The 1997 General Election in England and Wales. Political Behavior22: 121–143.
40.
KamCDFranzeseR (2007) Modeling and Interpreting Interactive Hypotheses in Regression Analysis. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
41.
KamCDPalmerCL (2008) Reconsidering the Effects of Education on Political Participation. Journal of Politics70: 612–631.
42.
KandlerCBellERiemannR (2016a) The Structure and Sources of Right–Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation. European Journal of Personality30 (4): 406–420.
43.
KandlerCBleidornWRiemannR (2012) Left or Right? Sources of Political Orientation: The Roles of Genetic Factors, Cultural Transmission, Assortative Mating, and Personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology102 (3): 633.
44.
KandlerCGottschlingJSpinathFM (2016) Genetic and Environmental Parent–child Transmission of Value Orientations: An Extended Twin Family Study. Child Development87 (1): 270–284.
45.
KellyNJEnnsPK (2010) Inequality and the Dynamics of Public Opinion: The Self-Reinforcing Link between Economic Inequality and Mass Preferences. American Journal of Political Science54: 855–870.
46.
KleinAMoosbruggerH (2000) Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Latent Interaction Effects with the LMS Method. Psychometrika65: 457–474.
47.
KlemmensenRHoboltSBDinesenPT, et al. (2012) The Danish Political Twin Study: Political Traits in Danish Twins and the General Population. Twin Research and Human Genetics15: 74–78.
48.
KrapohlERimfeldKShakeshaftNG, et al. (2014) The High Heritability of Educational Achievement Reflects Many Genetically Influenced Traits, Not Just Intelligence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences111: 15273–15278.
49.
KrishnaA (2002) Active Social Capital: Tracing the Roots of Development and Democracy. New York: Columbia University Press.
50.
KsiazkiewiczAKlemmensenRDawesCT, et al. (2020) Sources of Stability in Social and Economic Ideological Orientations: Cohort, Context, and Construct Effects. International Journal of Public Opinion Research32: 711–730.
51.
LaidleyTVinneauJBoardmanJD (2019) Individual and Social Genomic Contributions to Educational and Neighborhood Attainments: Geography, Selection, and Stratification in the United States. Sociological Science6: 580–608.
52.
LipsetSM (1960) Political Man. New York: Doubleday.
53.
McGueMBouchardTJr (1984) Adjustment of Twin Data for the Effects of Age and Sex. Behavior Genetics14: 325–343.
54.
McGueMOslerMChristensenK (2010) Causal Inference and Observational Research: The Utility of Twins. Perspectives on Psychological Science5: 546–556.
55.
McGueMWilloughbyEARustichiniA, et al. (2020) The Contribution of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills to Intergenerational Social Mobility. Psychological Science31: 835–847.
56.
MalkaALelkesYSotoCJ (2017) Are Cultural and Economic Conservatism Positively Correlated? A Large-Scale Cross-National Test. British Journal of Political Science: 49: 1045–1069.
57.
Marquart-PyattSPaxtonP (2007) In Principle and in Practice: Learning Political Tolerance in Eastern and Western Europe. Political Behavior29: 89–113.
58.
MarshallJ (2016) Education and Voting Conservative: Evidence from a Major School Reform in Great Britain. Journal of Politics78: 382–395.
59.
MartinNGEavesLJHeathAC, et al. (1986.) Transmission of Social Attitudes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences83: 4364–4368.
60.
MendelbergTMcCabeKTThalA (2017) College Socialization and the Economic Views of Affluent Americans. American Journal of Political Science61: 606–623.
61.
MilliganKMorettiEOreopoulosP (2004) Does Education Improve Citizenship? Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom. Journal of Public Economics88: 1667–1695.
NealeMCardonL (1992) Methodology for Genetic Studies of Twins and Families. New York: Springer.
65.
NeisserUBoodooGBouchardTJ, et al. (1996) Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns. American Psychologist51: 77–101.
66.
NewmanBJJohnstonCDLownPL (2015) False Consciousness or Class Awareness? Local Income Inequality, Personal Economic Position, and Belief in American Meritocracy. American Journal of Political Science59: 326–340.
67.
NieNHJunnJStehlik-BarryK (1996) Education and Democratic Citizenship in America. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
68.
OECD (2011) Education at a Glance 2011: OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing.
69.
OnraetEVan HielADhontK, et al. (2015) The Association of Cognitive Ability with Right-Wing Ideological Attitudes and Prejudice: A Meta-Analytic Review. European Journal of Personality29: 599–621.
70.
OskarssonSCesariniDDawesCT, et al. (2014) Linking Genes and Political Orientations: Testing the Cognitive Ability as Mediator Hypothesis. Political Psychology36: 649–665.
71.
OskarssonSThisted DinesenPDawesCT, et al. (2017) Education and Social Trust: Testing a Causal Hypothesis Using the Discordant Twin Design. Political Psychology: 38: 515–531.
72.
PapageorgeNWThomK (2020) Genes, Education, and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study. Journal of the European Economic Association18: 1351–1399.
73.
PerssonM (2011) An Empirical Test of the Relative Education Model in Sweden. Political Behavior33: 455–478.
74.
PerssonM (2015) Education and Political Participation. British Journal of Political Science45: 689–703.
75.
PhelanJLinkBGStueveA, et al. (1995) Education, Social Liberalism, and Economic Conservatism: Attitudes toward Homeless People. American Sociological Review60: 126–140.
76.
PurcellS (2002) Variance Components Models for Gene–environment Interaction in Twin Analysis. Twin Research5: 554–571.
77.
RasmussenSHR (2015) Education or Personality Traits and Intelligence as Determinants of Political Knowledge?Political Studies64: 1036–1054.
78.
RasmussenSHRNørgaardAS (2017) When and Why Does Education Matter? Motivation and Resource Effects in Political Efficacy. European Journal of Political Research: 57: 24–46.
79.
RasmussenSHRLudekeSHjelmborgJV (2019) A Major Limitation of the Direction of Causation Model: Non-Shared Environmental Confounding. Twin Research and Human Genetics22: 14–26.
80.
SandewallÖCesariniDJohannessonM (2014) The Co-twin Methodology and Returns to Schooling: Testing a Critical Assumption. Labour Economics26: 1–10.
81.
SchaferJLGrahamJW (2002) Missing Data: Our View of the State of the Art. Psychological Methods7: 147–177.
82.
ShaniD (2009) On the Origins of Political Interest, PhD dissertation, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
83.
SondheimerRMGreenDP (2010) Using Experiments to Estimate the Effects of Education on Voter Turnout. American Journal of Political Science54: 174–189.
84.
StubagerR (2007) Uddannelse Og Ny Politik: En Dekomponering Af Uddannelseseffekten På Nypolitiske Holdninger. In: AndersenJGAndersenJBorreO, et al. (eds) Det Nye Politiske Landskab—Folketingsvalget 2005 I Perspektiv. Århus: Academica, pp.85–104.
85.
StubagerR (2008) Education Effects on Authoritarian–libertarian Values: A Question of Socialization. The British Journal of Sociology59: 327–350.
86.
TennS (2005) An Alternative Measure of Relative Education to Explain Voter Turnout. Journal of Politics67: 271–282.
87.
TurkheimerEHardenKP (2014) Behavior Genetic Research Methods: Testing Quasi-Causal Hypotheses Using Multivariate Twin Data. In: ReisHTJuddCM (eds) Handbook of Research Methods in Social and Personality Psychology (Second Edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.159–187.
88.
van der WaalJAchterbergPHoutmanD (2007) Class Is Not Dead—it Has Been Buried Alive: Class Voting and Cultural Voting in Postwar Western Societies (1956–1990). Politics & Society35: 403–426.
89.
WeatherfordMS (1978) Economic Conditions and Electoral Outcomes: Class Differences in the Political Response to Recession. American Journal of Political Science22: 917–938.
90.
WeinschenkADawesC (2019) The Effect of Education on Political Knowledge: Evidence from Monozygotic Twins. American Politics Research47: 530–548.
91.
WeldonSA (2006) The Institutional Context of Tolerance for Ethnic Minorities: A Comparative, Multilevel Analysis of Western Europe. American Journal of Political Science50: 331–349.
92.
YuanKHYang-WallentinFBentlerPM (2012) ML Versus MI for Missing Data with Violation of Distribution Conditions. Sociological Methods & Research41: 598–629.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
