Income and Ideology: How Personality Traits, Cognitive Abilities, and Education Shape Political Attitudes

Rebecca Morton; Jean-Robert  Tyran; Erik Roland Wengström

Income and Ideology: How Personality Traits, Cognitive Abilities, and Education Shape Political Attitudes

Rebecca Morton, Jean-Robert Tyran, Erik Roland Wengström

Department of Economics

623 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We find that cognitive abilities, educational attainment, and some personality traits indirectly affect ideological preferences through changes in income.
The effects of changes in personality traits on ideology directly and indirectly through income are in the same direction. However, the indirect effects of cognitive abilities and education often offset the direct effects of these variables on ideological preferences. That is, increases in cognitive abilities and education significantly increase income, which reduces the tendency of individuals to express leftist preferences. These indirect effects are in some cases sizeable relative to direct effects. The indirect effects of cognitive abilities through income overwhelm the direct effects such that increasing IQ increases rightwing preferences. For ideological preferences over economic policy the indirect effects of advanced education also overwhelm the direct effects, such that individuals with higher education are more likely to express rightwing preferences
than those with lower education.

Original language	English
Publisher	Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen
Number of pages	42
Publication status	Published - 2011

Access to Document

DP 11-08Submitted manuscript, 688 KB

Cite this

@techreport{d1cfabbfb3184d9486c91215453d73a9,

title = "Income and Ideology: How Personality Traits, Cognitive Abilities, and Education Shape Political Attitudes",

abstract = "We find that cognitive abilities, educational attainment, and some personality traits indirectly affect ideological preferences through changes in income. The effects of changes in personality traits on ideology directly and indirectly through income are in the same direction. However, the indirect effects of cognitive abilities and education often offset the direct effects of these variables on ideological preferences. That is, increases in cognitive abilities and education significantly increase income, which reduces the tendency of individuals to express leftist preferences. These indirect effects are in some cases sizeable relative to direct effects. The indirect effects of cognitive abilities through income overwhelm the direct effects such that increasing IQ increases rightwing preferences. For ideological preferences over economic policy the indirect effects of advanced education also overwhelm the direct effects, such that individuals with higher education are more likely to express rightwing preferences than those with lower education.",

author = "Rebecca Morton and Jean-Robert Tyran and Wengstr{\"o}m, {Erik Roland}",

year = "2011",

language = "English",

publisher = "Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen",

address = "Denmark",

type = "WorkingPaper",

institution = "Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen",

}

TY - UNPB

T1 - Income and Ideology

T2 - How Personality Traits, Cognitive Abilities, and Education Shape Political Attitudes

AU - Morton, Rebecca

AU - Tyran, Jean-Robert

AU - Wengström, Erik Roland

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - We find that cognitive abilities, educational attainment, and some personality traits indirectly affect ideological preferences through changes in income. The effects of changes in personality traits on ideology directly and indirectly through income are in the same direction. However, the indirect effects of cognitive abilities and education often offset the direct effects of these variables on ideological preferences. That is, increases in cognitive abilities and education significantly increase income, which reduces the tendency of individuals to express leftist preferences. These indirect effects are in some cases sizeable relative to direct effects. The indirect effects of cognitive abilities through income overwhelm the direct effects such that increasing IQ increases rightwing preferences. For ideological preferences over economic policy the indirect effects of advanced education also overwhelm the direct effects, such that individuals with higher education are more likely to express rightwing preferences than those with lower education.

AB - We find that cognitive abilities, educational attainment, and some personality traits indirectly affect ideological preferences through changes in income. The effects of changes in personality traits on ideology directly and indirectly through income are in the same direction. However, the indirect effects of cognitive abilities and education often offset the direct effects of these variables on ideological preferences. That is, increases in cognitive abilities and education significantly increase income, which reduces the tendency of individuals to express leftist preferences. These indirect effects are in some cases sizeable relative to direct effects. The indirect effects of cognitive abilities through income overwhelm the direct effects such that increasing IQ increases rightwing preferences. For ideological preferences over economic policy the indirect effects of advanced education also overwhelm the direct effects, such that individuals with higher education are more likely to express rightwing preferences than those with lower education.

M3 - Working paper

BT - Income and Ideology

PB - Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen

ER -