College Socialization and the Economic Views of Affluent Americans

Abstract

Affluent Americans support more conservative economic policies than the nonaffluent, and government responds disproportionately to these views. Yet little is known about the emergence of these consequential views. We develop, test, and find support for a theory of class cultural norms: These preferences are partly traceable to socialization that occurs on predominantly affluent college campuses, especially those with norms of financial gain, and especially among socially embedded students. The economic views of the student's cohort also matter, in part independently of affluence. We use a large panel data set with a high response rate and more rigorous causal inference strategies than previous socialization studies. The affluent campus effect holds with matching, among students with limited school choice, and in a natural experiment; and it passes placebo tests. College socialization partly explains why affluent Americans support economically conservative policies.

Schools and Attitudes Toward Economic Equality

“…Moreover, recent studies of electoral turnout, which attempt to causally disentangle the effect of education from the factors shaping selection into education via experimental and quasi-experimental designs, have yielded inconsistent findings. 1 Despite these mixed results, recent work returning to the question of schooling as a source of economic and social values has found schooling can affect basic beliefs about the structure of society in ways that persist into adulthood (Bruch & Soss, 2018;Marshall, 2016a;Mendelberg, McCabe, & Thal, 2016;Surridge, 2016). This work emphasizes two major channels through which more/less equality in the schooling can affect long-run economic attitudes, which mirror Pierson's (1993) material and interpretive channels.…”

“…Despite these mixed results, recent work returning to the question of schooling as a source of economic and social values has found schooling can affect basic beliefs about the structure of society in ways that persist into adulthood (Bruch & Soss, ; Marshall, ; Mendelberg, McCabe, & Thal, ; Surridge, ). This work emphasizes two major channels through which more/less equality in the schooling can affect long‐run economic attitudes, which mirror Pierson’s () material and interpretive channels.…”

Hierarchical Item Response Models for Analyzing Public Opinion

“…Finally, it is worth noting that although our applications to the ANES data are descriptive in nature, the models presented in this paper can be readily applied to study the causal effects of various "treatments"-such as elite position-taking (e.g., Broockman and Butler 2017), political socialization (e.g., Mendelberg, McCabe and Thal 2017), and economic inequality (e.g., Rueda…”

Class Position and Political Opinion in Rich Democracies

“…5 Such relative class differences have persisted even as 5 Debates are ongoing about the specific mechanisms underlying these patterns. The social capital and socialization aspects of higher education seem to matter, but less clear is the extent to which the economic consequences of lower education also matter (Houtman 2003;Stubager 2008;Mendelberg et al 2017 Given these complexities, we now transition to a discussion of how to conceptualize, measure, and interpret class differences in views of sociocultural issues writ large, particularly when those views may also be influenced by economic concerns. We start by acknowledging the fact that a major line of research, especially in the United States, has long maintained that divides between racial, ethnic, immigrant, and gender groups are connected to struggles over the development, extension, and sustainability of the welfare state (as well as over other political issues; Hutchings & Valentino 2004).…”