Education, the wealth of nations, and political tolerance toward homosexuals: a multilevel analysis of 26 countries in the Americas

Abstract

While the positive effect of education on political tolerance toward minorities is well-known, we understand far less about education’s impact on tolerance across varying contexts. Utilizing multilevel statistical techniques, we find an interactive effect indicating that education at the individual level has a greater effect on political tolerance toward those who identify as homosexuals in wealthier countries. The results suggest that (1) completing additional levels of schooling may be insufficient to promote tolerant attitudes toward this minority and (2) more investment in education leads to stronger impacts. We support this finding by showing that where educational expenditures are greater, the average impact of secondary education is larger. The study uses individual data from 26 countries in the 2014 AmericasBarometer as well as indicators from the World Bank DataBank and Freedom House.

How Much Have We Changed? Long-Term Determinants of Attitudes toward Homosexuality in Chile

“…The results of the specific research on Latin American and Caribbean countries are consistent with the findings of international literature, highlighting the role of gender, religion, education, ideology, location of residence, economic and social development, and education as the main predictors of acceptance of homosexuality (Lodola and Corral 2010; Chaux and León 2016; Navarro et al 2019; Seligson, Moreno Morales, and Ruso 2019). There is also some literature focusing solely on the Chilean case, such as studies by Cárdenas and colleagues (2012) and Cárdenas, Barrientos, and Gómez (2018).…”

“…According to the existing literature, age is another driver of these kinds of attitudes, as it is often positively related to socially conservative attitudes, including nonacceptance of same-sex relationships. Younger people are usually more accepting of homosexuality than older people (Quillian 1996; Andersen and Fetner 2008a; Hooghe and Meeusen 2013; Navarro et al 2019; Seligson, Moreno Morales, and Russo 2019). According to Adamczyk and Pitt (2009), the relationship between nonacceptance of same-sex relationships and age is especially intense in contexts of political and economic instability.…”

“…Third, the effect of education might be due to contact with other students and the informal interaction between students and teachers encouraging openness to different views (Pettigrew and Tropp 2006; Andersen and Fetner 2008a). Furthermore, some studies suggest that the role of education is stronger in more developed countries (Seligson, Moreno Morales, and Russo 2019), while its role is limited in authoritarian regimes, which may use education as a means of indoctrination (Zhang and Brym 2019).…”

“…Apart from the timeliness of the topic in Chile, with many studies on the determinants of attitudes toward homosexuality—which include several focused on Latin America and the Caribbean (Lodola and Corral 2010; Chaux and León 2016; Navarro et al 2019; Seligson, Moreno-Morales, and Russo 2019)—very few studies have explored the drivers of changing views on this issue over time, and those that exist are limited to the United States and Canada (Loftus 2001; Andersen and Fetner 2008b; Lewis and Gossett 2008; Pampel 2016; Lee and Mutz 2019). Furthermore, concrete evidence for Chile comes from the field of psychology and involves small samples of university students (Cárdenas et al 2012; Cárdenas, Barrientos, and Gómez 2018) at a specific moment in time, whereas our study uses several waves of a nationally representative survey of attitudes that covers two decades of attitudes.…”