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October 19, 2004

social class and tolerance for gays

I was wondering whether people who are more educated and wealthier are more tolerant of homosexuality. According to the General Social Survey, the answer is yes. I guess this result is intuitive, but I always like to check.

Education and income each correlate with tolerance. I don't have the time right now to figure out whether the real driver is education (which may increase both income and tolerance). There could be a third factor underlying the relationship, such as urbanicity, age, religious denomination, or region. But just to dramatize the basic situation, here is a graph that contrasts upper-middle-class people who have college degrees (in blue) and lower-income people with no more than high school (in red). The difference in attitudes toward gays is pretty stark.

Posted by peterlevine at October 19, 2004 07:52 AM

Comments

Yes those poor uneducated slobs are such a trial, let's send them all to Iraq already.

Posted by: Juanp at October 21, 2004 10:03 AM

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