There is indeed a relationship between education and minors with authoritarian gestures – but education is not the main origin.
The title is clear: “The relationship between educational level and right-wing authoritarianism: a study with discordant twins”.
One study with twinsin Norway, concluded just relationship between higher levels of education and lower attitudes authoritarian right-wing – but this relationship cannot be explained solely by the direct effect of education.
According to research, a substantial part of this association results from factors shared by siblings: family context and, to a lesser extent, genetic influences.
Even so, the authors maintain that a relevant portion of the connection remains even after controlling these elements, which suggests that the education can have an effect of its own in reducing authoritarian provisions.
The study looked at 1,264 monozygotic and dizygotic twins enrolled in the Norwegian Twin Registry.
The objective was to understand the extent to which the association between education and authoritarianism could be confounded by variables invisible in conventional studies, such as family education, social class of origin or inherited traits.
By comparing twin brothers with different school trajectories, researchers sought to isolate the weight of the educational experience in the face of the weight of the shared environment and genetics, reinforces .
47% of the covariance between more education and less authoritarianism is explained by shared environmental factors; 25% reflects confounders genetic, although this last component did not emerge as statistically significant in isolation.
Os remaining 28% remained unexplained by these common factors, which, according to the authors, is compatible with causal effects of education and/or environmental influences not shared between the twins.
O socioeconomic status in childhood it explained about a third of the shared environmental component. I.e, Growing up in families with more resources and status simultaneously favors educational progression and less adherence to rigid political views.
The research also tested the hypothesis that the education would reduce authoritarianism by leading to a higher socioeconomic status in adulthood and thus a greater sense of security. But this not confirmed. The idea that prolonged contact with formal education may, at least in part, be associated with less authoritarian views was reinforced.
Important caveats of this study: the sample only includes Norwegian citizens aged 55 to 70; and does not distinguish areas of training.
