In many developed countries, disagreement on important policy issues between groups with different social identities ('ideological polarisation') is increasing. In professional settings, these disagreements undermine cooperation and trust between employees, which negatively affects work relationships and managerial decision-making. We investigate…

Past research shows a statistically significant relationship between college completion and sociopolitical attitudes. However, recent scholarship suggests the effects of college on social outcomes may be confounded with unobserved family background. In this study, we leverage the shared family and social background of siblings to better identify…

Universities have become increasingly interested in incorporating civic engagement into undergraduate education with the goal of enhancing leadership skills and creating socially responsible global citizens. What is unclear is which educational experiences are most effective in achieving this goal. In this study, we seek to determine the impact of…

Our original article espoused a simple way to recode religious groups on the General Social Survey (GSS) into historically meaningful categories and attempted to steer social scientists away from assigning these groups to a "Liberal-Moderate-Conservative" scale (Smith 1990). Among other problems, such scales create arbitrary cutpoints,…

The origin of values and preferences is an unresolved theoretical question in behavioral and social sciences. The Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis, derived from the Savanna Principle and a theory of the evolution of general intelligence, suggests that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel…

Despite a large body of research on the influences of religion on family life and gender ideology, few studies examined how religion affects work-family strategies. One set of strategies involves making employment or family trade-off--strategies of devoting time or attention to either work or family in a situation in which one cannot devote the…

Examines the effect of skin color differences in African-American society and their influence on social and political attitudes. Finds color stratification persists but makes little difference in social and political attitudes, except that darker-skinned Blacks were found to be consistently less civil libertarian. (DM)

Using General Social Survey and National Election Study, shows that from 1974 to 1986 percentage of young people willing to apply a conservative label to themselves increased, holding constant attitudes typically indicative of conservatism. Suggests that perceived increases in conservatism reflect not only a shift in attitudes but also a change in…

Applies the Gerbner, et al, theory of television "mainstreaming" to political orientations. Analyzes survey data to show the political attitudes of heavy, medium, and light TV viewers. Suggests new ways of thinking about television and the formation of political perspectives. (PD)

A secondary analysis of four General Social Surveys was performed to determine television's role in reducing social differentiation in the United States. An investigation of the extent to which television is associated with reduction in geographic regional impact on social and political attitudes indicates heavy viewers have more homogeneous…

Using data from 1982 National Opinion Research (NORC) General Social Survey, examines women's support for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) by analyzing attitudes about gender and racial equality, and socioeconomic status. Explains Black women's higher ERA approval as deriving from gender-role attitudes, but more important, from experience with,…

This report offers the results of an effort to trace a value profile of school superintendents, who are distinguished both by a high level of professional education and by a need to relate effectively with those who have a lower level of education. The intent was to examine the growing polarity between a highly educated liberal…