Work

Does Schooling Increase Political Belief Accuracy?

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Citizens must hold accurate beliefs about politically relevant facts to preserve democratic representation, accountability and legislation. We theorize that, abstracting from one’s background, schooling per se does not trigger the epistemological sophistication that is necessary to get a grasp of the political world. In this article, we study whether schooling improves the accuracy of factual beliefs about the share of foreigners and unemployed, later in life. We derive an appealing metric of belief accuracy, matching survey respondents’ beliefs with the corresponding real-world datum at the time of the interview in their country, retrieving high levels of inaccuracy in both issues. More educated individuals display higher belief accuracy, most likely due to selection, rather than causality: compelling otherwise-dropouts to stay in school by extending compulsory education does not entail a significant effect on belief accuracy, in both issues. Taken together, cross-sectional and causal estimates suggest that education is necessary, but not sufficient, to contrast inaccurate beliefs.

Source: Political Studies

DOI: 10.1177/00323217231222104

Authors: Riccardo Di Leo, Marco Giani

Institutions: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, King's College London

Language: English

Topic: Electoral Systems and Political Participation

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,450