Education and Political Attitudes: The Power and Limits of Field Theory

A growing body of research suggests that a person’s field of education shapes their political worldview. Yet basic questions remain unanswered. How strongly is the content of education associated with political attitudes relative to income, gender, ethnicity, and, most importantly, level of education? Which political orientations are most closely linked to field, and which are not? Using original and public surveys from the United States and Europe, we show that the human-centeredness of a field is strongly related to liberal positions on a wide range of political attitudes. The association with field is comparable to, and sometimes larger than, the association with level of education. However, the theory we propose has clear scope conditions: field of education is not systematically associated with interest in politics, efficacy, participation, or affective party identification.