Education or Personality Traits and Intelligence as Determinants of Political Knowledge?

Rasmussen, Stig Hebbelstrup Rye

doi:10.1111/1467-9248.12214

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…; Persson ; Rosenstone & Hansen ; Tenn ). Distinguishing between absolute motivational effects and relative resource effects of education has allowed us to engage a growing literature that has found psychological dispositions like personality traits to confound some of the educational effect on political enlightenment and engagement (Kam & Palmer ; Rasmussen , ). We argue that personal dispositions confound the motivational and cognitive effects of education but not relative resource effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When and why does education matter? Motivation and resource effects in political efficacy

Rasmussen

Nørgaard

2017

European J Political Res

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Abstract. Education increases political engagement because it bolsters motivations and cognition on the one hand, and relative resources on the other. However, personality traits have recently been found to partially confound the education effect. Focusing on internal and external political efficacy allows us to disentangle the different effects of education. It is argued in this article (a) that personal dispositions confound the cognitive and motivational effect of education, which is the predominant effect of education on internal efficacy, but not resource effects which are important for external but not internal efficacy; and (b) that resource effects are context-dependent whereas cognitive and motivational effects are not. Accordingly, the article shows that the competitive context in which individuals find themselves conditions the effect of education on external, but not on internal, efficacy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When and why does education matter? Motivation and resource effects in political efficacy

Rasmussen

Nørgaard

2017

European J Political Res

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“…Education is known to be one of the strongest predictors of the level of political information/knowledge, political involvement, interest in politics, etc. (Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996;Rasmussen 2015). In other words, education indicates not only "what" individuals know about politics but also "how much and how a person thinks about politics" (Luskin 1987, 864).…”

Section: Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of Political Corruption and Voting Behavior in South Korea

Choi¹

2019

AISR

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While regular and competitive elections are expected to lower political corruption by holding elected officials accountable for their actions, citizens often fail to vote corrupt officials out of office in elections. This article explores how citizens’ perceptions of political corruption influence their voting behavior by testing three competing theories: nonvoting, opposition voting, and corruption voting. This study also investigates the types of voters involved in each form of voting by considering three mediating factors: economic evaluation, partisanship, and education. Empirical findings from the South Korean case suggest that, in general, the high level of perceived corruption decreases voter turnout, confirming the nonvoting theory. Second, corruption voting occurs mostly among those who positively evaluate the economy and have the same partisan affiliation as the incumbent candidate. Finally, a high level of education leads to opposition voting. In sum, the empirical evidence confirms that incumbent candidates’ and party’s political corruption does not always lead to the electoral victory of opposition parties and their candidates because the mediating factors play a role in strengthening or weakening the patterns of nonvoting, opposition voting, and corruption voting.

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“…Prior studies have consistently identified education as an important correlate of political knowledge (Carpini and Keeter, 1996;Nie et al, 1996;Rasmussen, 2016). Indeed, Carpini and Keeter (1996: 188) summarize their extensive study of the determinants of political knowledge as, "of all the individual demographic, structural, attitudinal, and behavioral variables we examined … education was the strongest single predictor of behavioral variables we examined … education was the strongest single predictor of political knowledge."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, Carpini and Keeter (1996: 188) summarize their extensive study of the determinants of political knowledge as: “of all the individual demographic, structural, attitudinal, and behavioral variables we examined … education was the strongest single predictor of political knowledge.” However, the interpretation of this correlation is highly debated. Some argue that education is causally prior because of its aim to develop the cognitive capacity of students, and its influence on the social networks in which one engages both during and after school (Verba et al, 1995; Carpini and Keeter, 1996; Nie et al, 1996; Rasmussen, 2016). Therefore, raising the overall level of political knowledge in the population can be achieved by increasing the overall level of education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it is not entirely clear to what extent these pre-adult factors confound the correlation between education and political knowledge as the literature has thus far been somewhat divided. For example, Rasmussen (2016) finds a strong effect of education after control for personality, intelligence, and parental factors. But Highton (2009) finds no effect of college education on political knowledge with longitudinal data, and Weinschenk and Dawes (2018)—using the same data analyzed in this article—find that the relationship between education and political knowledge is highly confounded by pre-adult factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Education, Family Background, and Political Knowledge: A Test of the Compensation Hypothesis with Identical Twins

Robinson

2019

Political Studies

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Prior research has consistently identified education as an important correlate of political knowledge, which, many argue, reflects an underlying causal relationship. However, recent work has questioned this interpretation rather arguing that family background causes one to both obtain an education and to develop political knowledge. I argue that this causal-versus-proxy debate is too simplistic. Specifically, using a sample of identical twins, I test the interaction between education, political discussion in the home, and political knowledge. I find that education is positively associated with political knowledge independent of family background and genetics for those who discussed politics with family relatively little during upbringing. However, for those who discussed politics with family members more frequently, education has no association with political knowledge independent of pre-adult factors. Therefore, education compensates for a lack of exposure to political content in the home.

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Education or Personality Traits and Intelligence as Determinants of Political Knowledge?

Cited by 26 publications

References 72 publications

When and why does education matter? Motivation and resource effects in political efficacy

When and why does education matter? Motivation and resource effects in political efficacy

Perceptions of Political Corruption and Voting Behavior in South Korea

Education, Family Background, and Political Knowledge: A Test of the Compensation Hypothesis with Identical Twins

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