Previous research has shown that education often intersects with social political opinion. According to Weakliem’s International Study of the Effects of Education on Political Opinions, he found that education is associated with more liberal opinions on a number of issues because it has the ability to influence political opinions. His work determined that individualist values are promoted as a result. Additionally, there is a trend that with more economic development, higher education on political views will be more likely to shift to the left. Additional takeaways from Weakliem’s research suggest that education deserves more attention in explanations of national differences and historical trends in opinion. However, there are gaps in his research that could be improved by explaining how race intersects with college education and social political opinion. The aim of this research project is to provide substantive data and analysis of that deficit in his research. This research is important because it can help many understand how education, especially college, can influence or lead to changes in political thought.
Our Question:
How does race intersect with college education and political opinion?
Hypotheses:
Your major influences your political opinion and involvement. The transition to college will allow students to become more socially progressive. Minorities are more likely to maintain their political identity in college than white students are.
Literature Review:
We will conduct a literature review of race and ethnicity and how that intersects with social-political opinion/participation, education, and geography. The main purpose of our research is to find if there is any effect of race/ethnicity and education on political opinion and participation. We have found ten academic sources that each dive into different areas that we are researching. We have separated our literature review into five different sections: Race/Ethnicity and Sociopolitical Opinion/Participation, Race/Ethnicity and Education, Sociopolitical Opinion and Education, Race, Socio Political Opinion, and Education, and Geography and Political Opinion. All of these journals will help us build an understanding of this topic so we are more informed while conducting our survey research.
Race/Ethnicity and Social-Political Opinion/Participation
In our research, we are making our hypothesis under the assumption that race and ethnicity in America affects social and political views. Research conducted in 2017 by the Pew Research Center found that, “white voters have been more likely to align with the GOP than with the Democrats...African American voters remain overwhelmingly Democratic: 84% identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party. Just 8% of black voters identify in some way with the Republican Party. While black voters remain solidly Democratic, identification with the Democratic Party has declined modestly in recent years: About two-thirds of African Americans have identified as Democrats in the last several years, down slightly from the first half of Barack Obama’s presidency, when about three-quarters affiliated with the Democratic Party. By more than two-to-one (63% to 28%), Hispanic voters are more likely to affiliate with or lean toward the Democratic Party than the GOP. The overall balance of partisan orientation among Hispanics is little changed over the last decade.” Our assumption of race and political opinion is supported by an academic journal published in the British Journal of Politics titled Race, Ethnicity and Political Resources: Participation in the United States (1993) by Verba, et. al. This journal analyzes how race, ethnicity, and political resources intersect with political participation. They utilized data from the Citizen Participation Study to sample African-Americans and Latinos to inquire about the extent and sources of differences in political activity amongst those two minority groups and white Americans. Before they delve into their research, they mention in their introductory paragraphs that, “In an era in which discord among groups defined by their ethnicity and race is claiming lives and redrawing maps around the globe and the links between class and political choices have become attenuated in many democracies, it is hardly novel to draw attention to the significance of racial for politics (Verba et. al, 1993).” They support the general idea that political opinion is greatly affected by race and ethnicity and it is something that is considered whenever conducting political research. The authors define political opinion as, “the mechanism by which those needs and preferences are communicated to political decision makers and by which pressure is brought to bear on them to respond (Verba et. al., 1993).” However, they find that in the United States, not all citizens are equally politically involved. Political Attitudes and Ideologies of Multiracial Americans: The Implications of Mixed Race in the United States (2008) by Natalie Masuoka is another academic journal that analyzes race and political attitudes. With the rise of interracial marriage and multiracial identities, Masuoka found it important to see if the multiracial idetnity changes American politics. Her research found that, “generally, multiracial individuals who self-identify as such develop political opinions that parallel with their minority counterparts (Masuoka, 2008).” This goes to show that even though racial dynamics in America are changing, political opinion is still affected by race and ethnicity. Even for those Americans whose race is mixed, they find that they are more aligned with political opinions of minorities instead of white Americans. This research helps develop our research because it proves that analyzing race and political opinion is still important because racial dynamics are ever changing. Interestingly, Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson found in their article, Hispanic Population Growth Engenders Conservative Shift Among Non-Hispanic Racial Minorities (2017), that in consideration with the Hispanic population growth in America, non-Hispanic racial minorities are identifying as more conservative. This might come as a surprise to some because most changes in political opinion due to the rise of the Hispanic population is often found in white Americans, not other minorities. The sociological idea of racial threat, which is typically defined as where an individual feels like their racial identity is being threatened demographically or culturally, can be an explanation for why non-Hispanic minorities are classifying themselves as more conservative. As this journal states, “non-Hispanic whites are projected to make up less than 50% of the U.S. population by midcentury (Craig and Richeson, 2017).” This fear of being dominated is present for white Americans and minorities. This information is important to note in our research because we are not expecting to see conservatism amongst racial minority students, so this article will offer an explanation if we do see this shift.
Race/Ethnicity and Education
In our hypothesis, we believe that minorities are more likely to maintain their political identity in college than white students are, but generally the transition to college will allow students to become more socially progressive. In Assets and liabilities, race/ethnicity, and children's college education (2011) by Min Zhan and Michael Sherraden, a study is conducted to examine disparities in children’s college attendance and college graduation. Three racial families are examined to conduct data: White, Black, and Hispanic families. Although Black and Hispanic children are more frequently attending college than ever before, there are more positive associations with family income and financial assets when it comes to white families (Zhan and Sherraden, 2011). The study also concluded that assets account for a large portion of the Black–White gap in college education, while unsecured debt is negatively related to college education of minority children (Zhan and Sherraden, 2011). This article also considered policy implications after looking at these results. Based off socioeconomic status highlighted in this article, we have hypothesized that the majority of hispanic and Black families will tend to identify as Democrats based on social policies and ideas that support them and their beliefs, whereas as based off in this article, White families tend to have higher socioeconomic status and thus may not necessarily have more liberal ideology.
From Bakke to Hopwood: Does Race Affect College Attendance and Completion? By Audrey Light and Wayne Strayer (2006) examines the behavior of white students versus minority students in a college setting, which is an important distinction to make early on to then explain why minority political ideology is less likely to change than white political ideology in the university. Unfortunately, the conducted survey determined that although minorities have the same potential to finish college as their white counterparts, they are more likely to not complete their education due to unfavorable factors that stand in their path (Light and Strayer, 2006). This conclusion has gaps in its research that we hope to solve, which is to determine if this is part of the reason why minorities are more likely to maintain their political ideology even when they attend college, and why they are probably more likely to align with liberal viewpoints.
Social-Political Opinion and Education
Our research hypothesis is based off of the assumption that education affects social-political opinions. Research conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2017 found that college graduates continue to shift towards the Democratic party. They claim that, “Higher educational attainment is increasingly associated with Democratic Party affiliation and leaning. At the same time, those without college experience – once a group that tilted more Democratic than Republican – are roughly divided in their partisan orientation.” Furthermore, their research shows that, “In 1994, 39% of those with a four-year college degree (no postgraduate experience) identified with or leaned toward the Democratic Party and 54% associated with the Republican Party. In 2017, those figures were exactly reversed. Democratic gains have been even more pronounced among those who pursue postgraduate education.” The academic journal, Race, Ethnicity and Political Resources: Participation in the United States (1993) by Verba, et. al., also talks about education and its intersectionality with political opinion and participation. Before they were able to conduct their research on race, ethnicity, and political resources and its intersectionality with political participation, they had to account for the other confounding factors, such as involvement in non-political secondary institutions, that might also affect political participation and opinion. As for education, they found that it, “functions in a more complicated way as a political resource: formal education itself fosters organizational and communication skills that are germane to political activity and imparts attitudes such as a sense of civic duty or political efficacy that are associated with political involvement. In addition, those with high levels of education are in a position to acquire further political resources: they are much more likely to have the kinds of jobs that pay high salaries and, as we shall see, to have opportunities in several arenas to develop skills that are relevant to politics (Verba et al., 1993).” This ultimately helps us in developing our research because it is important to note how education does play a huge role in political opinion and participation. This idea is explored more in depth in Does College Influence Sociopolitical Attitudes (2015) by Colin Campbell and Jonathan Horowitz. In their research, they are looking to see if family and social background change the effect of college on socio political attitudes. They create this research with the assumption created from past research that, “shows a statistically significant relationship between college completion and sociopolitical attitudes (Campbell et. al., 2015).” They got their data from the Study of American Families and General Social Survey to find the effect of college on political orientation, support for civil liberties, and beliefs about gender egalitarianism. They found that, “earning a four-year college degree has a significant impact on support for civil liberties and beliefs about gender egalitarianism, but the effect of college on political orientation is confounded by family background (Campbell et. al, 2015).” Their findings support our general hypothesis for our research. We are going to distribute surveys to University of Maryland students. Some of our questions will ask about their political opinion before college and if their hometown and parents have an effect on their views. We are curious to know if their major or college courses have changed their opinions to become more liberal. This research shows that it is true in their parameters, so it will be interesting to see if their findings still apply to our research outcomes.
Another article that was applicable to this topic is The Effects of Education on Political Opinions: An International Study by David L. Weakliem (2002). This study also summarized the general idea that education had an influence on political opinion, but the author wanted to dig deeper into the interpretation and scope of the issue. The conclusion of the study determined that education influences most political opinions, and the effects can be summarized by saying that it promotes individualist values (Wealiem, 2002). Additionally, education is associated with somewhat lower confidence in most institutions. Weakliem (2002) also determined that the results suggest that education deserves more attention in explanations of national differences and historical trends in opinion, which is what our research project is trying to cover. Through surveying University of Maryland students, we hope to determine if and how education at the college level generally makes students more progressive, as well as if the social institutions within college have an influence on students political opinions.
Race, Social-Political Opinion, and Education
For our research, we are mainly trying to research how race and education affect socio political opinion and participation. Race, Education, and the Politics of Fear (2008) by Barbara Loomis Jackson of Fordham University does a good job of combining and analyzing all three ideas. Her article analyzes the legacy of the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education and how education for African-Americans still makes “a difference and keep the promise of social justice, equity, and equality (Jackson, 2008).” While analyzing the history of the supreme court case, Jackson mentions that, “education was seen as the way to overcome these fears [through slavery, legal segregation, etc.] and prepare those, formerly excluded by law and custom, to contribute to the making of a democratic society (Jackson, 2008).” It is interesting that Jackson believes that, “schools could become the common ground to learn tolerance and understanding (Jackson, 2008).” With that idea, education can affect political and social opinion, if they are spaces where children learn tolerance and understanding. This supports our hypothesis that college education will cause students who were once less liberal to become more social liberal due to the classes they take, their major, or the school population and environment. Jackson discusses a lot about how racial identity and the legacy of racial inequality in America still lingers to this day and affects how African-Americans participate in politics. With more education, she assumes that white Americans will become more tolerant and socially accepting, whereas African-Americans will become more comfortable in expressing their political opinion as they feel as though they are gaining more equality.
Geography and Political Identity
We plan to ask students at the University of Maryland their political identification and zip code to analyze if their backgrounds have been an influencing factor. We have evidence from The political reference point: How geography shapes political identity (2017) by Feinberg et. al that supports the idea that political identity does not necessarily mean the same thing from place to place. The article delves into the idea that academics, political campaigns, and other sources tend to make judgments about a population based on its political identity. Based on these snap judgements, we plan to ask University of Maryland students if internal and external factors have influenced their political opinion. In the Feinberg et. al (2017) article, research supports the idea that individuals arrive at their political identity through a confluence of bottom-up influences, including genetics, physiology, personality, fundamental needs and motivations, and moral values. There is also mention of horizontal influences, such as people around us (specifically parents, teachers, and colleagues) that may affect decision-making in voting. We plan to keep all of these factors in mind when surveying students on how political opinion is influenced. Feinberg et. al (2017) mentions that one’s political identity does not occur in a vacuum; instead it reflects what one’s social environment tacitly defines as liberalism and conservatism. The social environment that we plan to use in our research is race in a college setting, and we want to see how that intersects with political opinion. Another article that discusses the division between geography and political identity is Geography and Politics by Baroness J. Young (1987). Although this is not a contemporary piece, the author discusses how politics and geography are intertwined because geographical images and relationships enter into political language (Young, 1987). While we can generally make the conclusion that some states, such as Maryland, are generally more liberal than others, such as Florida, we have to understand the basis for why this is the case. Additionally, the article is relevant because it mentions how the sole definition of political identity could vary based on the geographic regions. For example, a Maryland Republican and a Floridian Republican would be categorized very differently. Through our survey, we plan to collect zip codes of all participants to determine what the voting patterns are in these specific towns so we can better figure out this discrepancy.
Methods/Sample:
We created a Qualtrics survey and sent it out to all of our peers and on all of our social media accounts. The survey took 5 minutes at the most and included questions about their hometowns, majors, race, political affiliation, gender, and religion. Some important questions were if their political opinion changed coming to college, if they have become more liberal or conservative, if their experience on campus affected their political opinion, if their parents had a huge impact on their opinions, etc. We received a diverse amount of 136 responses from students at many different universities. For our sample, we had 36 male and 99 female respondents with 1 non-binary respondent. As for the racial make-up of our respondents, we had 33 Black/African-American respondents, 87 White/Caucasian, 14 Asian, 0 Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 14 Hispanic/Latinx, 1 American Indian or Alaskan Native, and 3 'other'. For data analysis purposes, I only compared responses from Black, White, Asian, and Latinx respondents as those were the racial groups we got the most of. In regard to religious affiliation, we had 63 Christian respondents, 22 Jewish, 5 Muslim, 2 Hindu, 1 Buddhist, 19 Atheists, and 26 'other's. The age of our respondents ranged from 18-31, with the majority (133) between the ages of 18 and 22 years old. We had 22 college freshmen, 23 sophomores, 53 juniors, 33 seniors, and 5 5th years and beyond.
Results/Analysis:
Our data revealed the political climates of respondents hometowns. Half (50%) of respondents reported that their hometowns were liberal or extremely liberal. The largest proportion of respondents (41%) come from liberal hometowns.
When we broke up the data by race, one interesting thing I noticed is that 0% of Black respondents come from extremely conservative hometowns. Hispanic respondents come from extremely conservative hometowns more often than other races. For people who reported coming from a conservative background (20.4% of respondents), the most prominent race were White people. The data shows that Black students mostly (78.8%) come from moderate or liberal hometowns. Similar to Black respondents, Hispanic respondents (71.4%) come from moderate and liberal hometowns. Most of Asian respondents (57.1%) come from liberal hometowns.
This graph shows how respondents political opinion change compared to the political climate of their hometown. 37.3% of respondents who came from liberal hometowns have become more liberal whereas 50% of respondents from liberal hometowns have become more conservative. 42% of respondents who reported that their political opinion has stayed the same come from liberal hometowns. 30% of those who reported coming from a conservative hometown have become more liberal. No respondents from conservative backgrounds have become more conservative. The majority (31.9%) of respondents from a moderate hometown have reported that their political opinion as stayed the same. Those who came from extremely conservative hometown have mostly (12.5%) become more conservative. Similarly, those from extremely liberal hometowns have mostly (12.5%) become more conservative as well.
67% of respondents reported that they consider themselves to be liberal or extremely liberal. Only 6% of respondents have reported that they are conservative or extremely conservative. More than a quarter (27%) of respondents reported that they were moderates.
When broken down by race, I found that the majority of Black respondents (48.5%) report that they are liberal. 30.3% of Black respondents report that they are moderate and 21.2% report that they are extremely liberal. 0% of Black respondents report being extremely conservative or conservative. 46% of White respondents reported that they are liberal. A quarter of White respondents (25.3%) reported that they are moderates and 19.5% reported being extremely liberal. Approximately 10% of White respondents reported that they are extremely conservative or conservative. Interestingly, there are more moderate Black students than there are White students. White, Asian, and Latinx respondents report that they are conservative approximately at the same rate of ~7%. The only people who reported to be extremely conservative were White respondents.
The majority of students (52%) reported that their political opinion has stayed the same since coming to college. For those that reported that their political opinion has changed since coming to college, the majority of them reported that they became more liberal. Less than 10% of respondents reported that they have become more conservative.
When looking at political opinion change over time, as students spend more time in college and grow from freshmen to senior (and "super senior"), they generally become more liberal. Upperclassman reported higher rates of becoming more liberal after coming to college than lowerclassmen.
When broken down by race, the majority of political opinion of all races stayed the same after coming to college. When it comes to becoming more conservative, Asian respondents reported the highest rates with Black students and and White students following. As for extremely more conservative, only 1.1% of respondents reported that as their experience, and they were 100% White. The majority of students who reported becoming more liberal after coming to college were White respondents (43.7%) where the remaining racial groups (Black, Asian, and Latinx) reported at similar rates at approximately 28%. Black students reported the highest proportion of respondents who felt that they have become extremely more liberal after coming college (12.1%) with only 3.4% of White respondents in that same category. No other racial groups reported becoming extremely more liberal.
Overall, most respondents (65.1%) reported that their political opinion has been affected by college experiences such as their classes, majors, demographics of school, events, etc. Latinx respondents reported at the highest rate (18.2%) that college experiences did not affect their political opinion. Black respondents also reported the highest rate that college experiences did affect their political opinion.
The majority of respondents (66.4%) reported that their parents have an affect on their political opinion while 22.4% said that their parents did not affect their political opinion and the remaining 11.2% reported that their parents neither did or did not affect their political opinion. Black students reported the highest amount (78.8%) of all races that felt that their parents greatly affected their political opinion. Latinx respondents had the highest rate (35.7%) of any of the races reporting that their parents did not affect their political opinion.
When this data is broken down by gender, I found that male respondents reported approximately 5% more than female respondents that their parents did not have an affect on their political opinion.
When we asked if political opinion was affected by religion, we found that the majority of respondents (39.1%) reported that their religion did not affect their political opinion. When I broke it down by specific religions, I found that a majority of Muslim and Jewish respondents felt that their religion had an impact on their political opinion. However, 36.4% of Jewish respondents reported that their religion affects their political opinion and another 36.4% reported that they neither agree or disagree that their religion affects their political opinion. As for Christians and Atheists, they reported that their religion did not have an affect on their political opinion. Atheists overwhelmingly (57.9%) felt that their religion, or lack thereof, affected their political opinion.
90.8% of respondents reported that they are likely to vote in any upcoming elections. When I broke it down by race, while there are similarities across Black, White, and Latinx respondents, I found that Black people were most likely (93.9%) to vote. Asian respondents are the least likely to vote in upcoming elections (28.6%).
When it is broken down by gender, 94.4% of male respondents reported that they are likely to vote in upcoming elections while only 89.9% of female respondents reported that they are likely to vote in upcoming elections. Women are far less likely (8.1% versus 2.8%) to vote in upcoming elections than men.
In an analysis of the majors of respondents with their responses to changes in political opinion, the results came back inconclusive. There is no evidence that a particular major (such as a STEM related major versus a non-STEM major) has a significant affect on the respondents political opinion.
Conclusion:
Our first hypothesis that certain majors and courses of study would affect political opinion was proven wrong. By looking at the different majors of respondents, I found that the responses were pretty evenly distributed amongst those who reported to have STEM related majors and those who were non-STEM students. Our second hypothesis was correct that students of color would not change their political opinion as much after coming to college as their White counterparts. The majority of Black students (54.5%) reported that their political opinion has stayed the same since coming to college. However, what we did not expect is that Latinx respondents would outnumber the amount of Black students whose political opinions stayed the same (71.4%). Asian respondents also surpassed Black respondents with 64.3% of respondents reporting that their political opinion have stayed the same. This can be compared to White respondents who reported the most amount of variance in their political opinion with 52.8% of White respondents saying that their political opinion has gotten more conservative or more liberal. Our third hypothesis was proven incorrect. Only 43.4% of respondents reported that they became more liberal after coming to college. However, the amount of students who became more liberal greatly outnumbered those who became more conservative (5.3%). The majority of students stayed the same. One graph showed that there is a positive upward trend overtime for students to become more liberal as they progress in their years in college.
Since students are required to take general education classes, it may not matter what major someone has because they still may be exposed to new ideas, experiences, and knowledge that can cause their political opinion to change without being in a particular major. Or, it could be explained that those who reported that their political opinion didn't change could not have had to take courses or have experiences that might have influenced their political opinion. In regard to political opinion staying the same by race, it is probable that students of color (Black, Asian, and Latinx) reported much higher rates of their political opinion staying the same after coming to college because they may have already had experiences and a general understanding of issues that affect their political affiliation before entering college. It is possible that White students change their political opinion more often than other racial groups because they are now being exposed to experiences and knowledge that may have been apparent to some students of color but never something that they were exposed to before college.
It seems that those who came from liberal hometowns became more conservative and those from conservative hometowns became more liberal. This could prove that college education can affect your political opinion on both sides of the spectrum and open your eyes to new things that you may not have been able to learn about from your hometown.
This research project shows that there are some differences in race of students and their political opinions. Students racial background is just as significant as their hometowns and their parents in how they view politics and social issues. Most respondents reported that their college experience has affected their political opinion. With knowledge that there are racial differences in the malleability of political opinion and that college experiences greatly affect those political opinions, colleges should ensure to continue to make sure that students of all backgrounds are exposed to new and different experiences that can broaden their worldview. While there are general education requirements at most universities, they should be more cemented in certain topics that can teach students, without bias, about different, important, modern social and political issues that are going on. If students rely greatly on what they have experienced in college to continue to formulate their ideas and beliefs, colleges should ensure that there are plenty of opportunities for students to engage in that behavior.