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Communist teach. Suppose he is teaching in a college. Should he be fired, or not?
Communist book. Suppose he wrote a book which is in your public library. Somebody in your community
suggests that the book should he removed from the library. Would you favor removing it or not?
Racist speak. Or , consider a person who belives that blacks are genetically inferior.If such a person wanted
to make a speech in your community claiming that blacks are inferior, should he be allowed to speak, or not?
Racist teach. Should such a person be allowed to teach in college or university or not?
Racist book. If some people in your community suggested that a book he wrote which said blacks are
inferior should be taken out of your public library, would you favor removing the book, or not?
Militarist speak. Consider a person who advocates doing away with elections and letting the military run the
country. If such a person wanted to make a speech in your community, should he be allowed to speak, or not?
Militarist teach. Should such a person be allowed to teach in a college or university, or not?
Militarist book. Suppose he wrote a book advocating doing away with elections and letting the military run
the country. Somebody in your community suggests that the book should he removed from the library. Would
you favor removing it or not?
Homosexual speak. And what about a man who admits that he is a homosexual? Suppose this admitted
homosexual wanted to make a speech in your community. Should he be allowed to speak or not?
Homosexual teach. Should such a person be allowed to teach in a college or university or not?
Homosexual book. If some people in your community suggested that a book he wrote in favor of
homosexuality should be taken out of your public library, would you favor removing this book, or not?
EDUCATION AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE
TESTING THE EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE SOPHISTICATION AND TARGET GROUP
AFFECT
LAWRENCE BOBO
and
FREDERICK C.LICARI
Abstract this paper examines the effects of education and cognitive sophistication on willingness to
extend civil liberties to nonconformist groups. We conducted secondary analysis of the 1984 General
Society Survey data. The results show that there is a strong tolerance dimension that cuts across groups
and types of actions. We found strong positive effects of education on a multiple target group tolerance
scale that included both left-wing and right-wing groups. A substantial fraction of the education effect
on tolerance is mediated by cognitive sophistication. The effects of education on tolerance are strong
even when a person has negative feelings toward the target group. This paper helps identify why and
when (e.g., cognitive sophistication and dislike of a target group) education enhances political tolerance.
We discuss the implications of the research for debates on the education-tolerance relationship.
LAWRENCE BOBO is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin.
FREDERICK C. LICARI is a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology Department at the University of
Wisconsin. This paper was presented at the 43rd annual conference of The American Association for
Public Opinion Research, 19-22 May 1988. Part of this research was originally reported in a master's
thesis by the second author, carried out under the direction of the first author. The authors thank John
Delamater, Lincoln Moses, and Nora Cate Schaeffer for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
This paper was partially prepared while the first author was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study
in the Behavioral Sciences. The research was partly supported by NSF Grant BNS87— 00864 and by
the Graduate School Research Committee of the University of Wisconsin. Please direct correspondence
to Lawrence Bobo, Dept. of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706.
Public Opinion Quarterly Volume 53:285-308 () 1989 by the American Association for Pubic
Opinion research Published by The University of Chicago Press / 0033-362X/89/0053-03/$2.50
1 The effect of education on levels of support for civil liberties is a central concern of students of
political tolerance. Stouffer's (1955) pioneering work established widely used measures of tolerance,
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provided baseline data on the U.S. population, and documented an important dependence of expressed
levels of tolerance on education. Later studies also found that education was a key determinant of tolerance