How Education Affects Attitude to Protest: A Further Test

Abstract

In a previous study, the authors found that among whites education affected attitude to protest in four ways: by raising commitment to civil liberties; by reducing support for violence; by increasing knowledge of protest justifications; and by altering a person's position in society, hence one's interests and identifications. This study shows that the same set of forces accounts for the variability of correlations between education and protest attitudes among samples of black respondents. Differences in the results among blacks as compared to whites chiefly relate to issue-specific protests. Here results diverge because black experience serves as an alternative to formal education for increasing awareness of protest justifications and identification with protestors.Although demographic variables that represent positions in the social structure-such as age, race, occupational level, and education-are repeatedly shown to correlate with important political attitudes, we know little about how these relationships come about.Davis (1982) shows that educational attainment explains more of the variation in the political attitudes of Americans than any other variable in his study, but finds no evidence to explain why, though able to rule out education's relation to social class, age, and cohort. Like other political attitudes, attitudes toward protest relate systematically to education. Consequently, any model designed to show why some members of a public support a protest and others do not should include education.An understanding of the factors that affect the public's level of protest support has practical, as well as theoretical, implications. Turner (1969) notes that support by people who are uninvolved in a protest may contribute to its ultimate success. Schumaker (1975) offers evidence that a protest's effectiveness is determined less by protest characteristics than "the environment of social support," including public attitudes toward the protest.To investigate the effect of education on protest attitude, we previously examined (Hall, Rodeghier, and Useem 1986) the correlations between education and many different measures of attitude toward protest' in 17 different data sets. We found that magnitude and sign of the correlations varied widely. To account for the variability we posited four different processes or "forces" by which education affects attitudes toward protest and specified conditions under which each operates. The processes are based upon the way education affects several things, including a person's (1) identification with protestors or target groups, ( 2 ) knowledge of conditions underlying a protest, and (3) support of democratic means of expression. These forces sometimes reinforce and sometimes counteract one another, so that the net effect of education reflected in its correlation with protest attitudes can be positive, zero, or negative. Our theoretical analysis specifies the conditions for each of these outcomes. When testing the model in our earlier study and the present one, we pool que...

Becoming a Movement Society? Patterns in the Public Acceptance of Protest, 1985–2006

“…If that is the case, then we would not expect to find differences in the acceptance of protest among groups characterized by social locations such as race, class, gender, and age; instead, we would expect that acceptance of protest is more widespread (Meyer and Pullum 2015). However, previous research on public opinion about protest shows that some individual characteristics such as age, race, occupation, and education are statistically significant predictors of attitudes toward protest (Hall, Rodeghier, and Useem 1986;Rodeghier, Hall, and Useem 1991). Hall et al (1986) in particular explain four possible mechanisms for how education, which has been found to be the most important predictor of such attitudes, affects attitudes toward protest: more education is associated with 1) stronger support of civil and political liberties; 2) intolerance of violence; 3) more identification with protest; and 4) more knowledge of the justifications for protest (see also Hall and Rosenthal 1981).…”

Women and Contentious Politics

“…Organizations and individuals throughout history have often supported the use of and education about nonviolent tactics, which, as recent research has shown, can be successful at influencing political change (Chenoweth and Stephan 2011). Higher levels of education have been shown to decrease individual level support for violent protest but to increase support for protest among those lacking close relationships to protesters (Rodeghier, Hall, and Useem 1991). Dalton, Van Sickle, and Weldon (2010) find that education levels are associated with increased protest participation.…”

Networked Authoritarianism and Social Media in Azerbaijan

“…Age, for example, is associated with the willingness to support protests (Hall, Rodeghier, & Useem, 1986; Rodeghier, Hall, & Useem, 1991) as well as with Internet use (Katz & Rice, 2002). Educational attainment is positively related to willingness to support protests because education increases commitment to civil liberties, decreasing support of use of violence, increasing knowledge of protestors' grievances (Hall et al, 1986; Rodeghier et al, 1991). Educational attainment is also positively related to Internet use (Katz & Rice, 2002; Rice & Katz, 2003).…”