Education Or Personality Traits and Intelligence As Determinants of Political Sophistication? Abstract
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Education or personality traits and intelligence as determinants of political sophistication? Abstract Recently the causal influence of education on political sophistication has been questioned. Rather, pre-adult predispositions such as personality traits and intelligence are proposed as the real causal Stig Hebbelstrup Rye Rasmussen, University of Southern Denmark agents. This article investigates in two studies whether education retains its explanatory power on [email protected] political sophistication when personality traits and intelligence are taken into account. One study draws on a draftee sample and has excellent measures of both personality traits and intelligence; the other study draws on a representative sample and has excellent measures of personality traits. Openness to experience and intelligence are found to be positive predictors of political D R A F T sophistication and Neuroticism a negative predictor of political sophistication. In both studies (do not cite without permission) education remains the single strongest predictor of political sophistication. Introduction cognitive skills, and personality traits) that propel individuals to pursue education might Education, the consensus was for decades, fosters a host of valued political behaviors, also propel them into political participation in later life” (Kam and Palmer 2008, 616). 1 including political sophistication. As phrased by Philip Converse (1972, 324): Even if sophistication is important for several behaviors related to “good democratic “Whether one is dealing with cognitive matters such as level of factual information about politics or conceptual citizenship” (Carpini and Keeter 1996; Nie, Junn, and Stehlik-Barry 1996), so far no one sophistication in its assessment; or such motivational matters as degree of attention paid to politics and emotional has examined if motivational and cognitive predispositions confound the effect of involvement in political affairs; or questions of actual behavior such as engagement in any variety of political activities from party work to vote turnout itself: education is everywhere the universal solvent and the education on sophistication. Extant research shows that an individual’s intelligence and relationship is everywhere in the same direction.” personality traits are largely set in late adolescence (Caspi, Roberts, and Shiner 2005; Attention paid to, and factual information about, politics, are both necessary to be Deary et al. 2004; Roberts and DelVecchio 2000; Shiner and DeYoung 2013), i.e. before politically sophisticated. Thus, following Converse ‘cognitive matters’ and ‘motivational deciding whether to enter post-secondary education. Besides, both intelligence and matters’ are essential in accounting for why education influences political sophistication. personality traits are important predictors of educational attainment (Deary et al. 2007; Richard Luskin also stresses ability and motivation, in addition to opportunity, in his Poropat 2009). Thus, as the recent literature argues these two constructs are among the AMO model of political sophistication (Luskin 1990). Focusing on education, Delli most likely candidates of pre-adult motivational and cognitive dispositions to explain Carpini and Keeter argue: “the primacy of formal education as a facilitator of political why education may not matter to political sophistication.2 The present analysis is the knowledge lies in its relevance to all the components of the opportunity-motivation- first to explicitly address the question: What is the effect of education on political sophistication ability triad” (1996, 190). The question is, however, if the causal role of education can be when personality traits and intelligence are taken into account? sustained? The analyses use two independent samples to examine this question. Both samples In a recent panel study, Benjamin Highton showed that most differences in political include the 60-item NEO-PI-R test of personality, and one of them includes an sophistication are already present before people enter college (Highton 2009). Highton extensive and highly validated intelligence test, the so-called Danish intelligence test speculates that pre-adult experiences and dispositions such as cognitive ability may Børge Priens Prøve (BPP), which is administered to all draftees appearing before the partly explain why education does not have the causal effect often found in cross- Danish draft board.3 The analyses show that intelligence and personality partially sectional studies. In a study of political participation, Kam and Palmer also highlight confound the effect of education on political sophistication, but in both studies confounding and selection problems: “predispositions (values, intelligence and/or education retains its predictive power and remains the single strongest determinant of 1 See also (Berinsky and Lenz 2010) 2 Like in most studies, I operationalize political sophistication as political knowledge. I therefore use “political knowledge” and “political sophistication” interchangeably. 3 The BPP score has a correlation of .82 with one of the most used and validated measures of intelligence, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) score; cf. (Mortensen, Reinisch, and Teasdale 1989) 2 3 sophistication. In addition, most individual differences in levels of education are not In fact, the empirical evidence in favor of viewing education as an important explained by predispositions. construct explaining differences in political sophistication is overwhelming, as numerous studies find a strong, significant effect of education on political sophistication Education and the determinants of political sophistication According to Robert Luskin, political sophistication is a function of three interrelated (Bennet 1989; Carpini and Keeter 1996; Jennings 1996; Lambert et al. 1988; Neuman causes (Luskin 1990): ability, opportunity and motivation (AMO). The first element in 1986; Nie, Junn, and Stehlik-Barry 1996; Smith 1989). The link between education and the ability-opportunity-motivation triad is ability. Motivation and opportunity are not sophistication has cogently been phrased in AMO concepts by Carpini and Keeter enough, if the ability to process and store the political knowledge is lacking (Luskin (1996, 190): “…it [education] promotes the opportunity to learn about politics by transmitting specific information and 1990). Some facts in politics are difficult to learn if they cannot be comprehended in influencing career paths and social networks; it increases motivation by socializing students to the political the first place or put into their right context. The motivation to learn about politics is world and stimulating their interest in it and it develops the cognitive ability necessary for effective learning”. important because motivated people will seek out political information and therefore be Personality traits as causes of political sophistication more likely to learn more political facts. They also spend more time thinking about Although not traditionally included in studies of political sophistication, there are, using politics when they encounter political information (Chaiken 1980) and are thus more the AMO model, very good theoretical reasons to consider the potential influence of likely to actually store the knowledge in long-term memory. The last element in the personality traits and intelligence. There are two reasons why taking predispositions into ability-motivation-opportunity triad opportunity refers to context such as the availability of account may imply that education does not exert an independent influence on information (Carpini and Keeter 1996; Jerit, Barabas, and Bolsen 2006). We can use sophistication as traditionally argued. First of all, the relationship between education and this framework to understand both the role of education and individual predispositions political sophistication might simply be spurious. In the extreme case in which the effect as determinants of political sophistication as discussed below. of education on political sophistication is completely confounded by personality traits and Verba, Schlozman and Brady argue that (1995, 514): “educational attainment…has intelligence, the relationship between education and political sophistication should consequences for the acquisition of…income earned on the job; skills acquired at work, disappear after controlling for predispositions. in organizations, and to a lesser extent, in church; psychological engagement with Secondly, educational differences might be explained by differences in politics...”. Although Verba, Schlozman and Brady mainly focus on political predispositions. In the extreme case in which individual differences in education are participation in their landmark book, it nicely summarizes the important pathways completely determined by predispositions, we should get a very high R-square when between education and political sophistication, which are also stressed in the AMO using predispositions as predictors of differences in levels of education. Both model. explanations, ‘predispositions as confounders’ and ‘predispositions as determinants of education’, will be entertained in the analyses below. 4 5 Personality traits are theorized as general inclinations and dispositions or, as it were, conscientious people to be more politically knowledgeable, which is in accord with a person’s general motivational structure (Denissen and Penke 2008). As such, there is a recent evidence (Gerber et al. 2011; Mondak 2010;