Brendan Nyhan: It's generally believed that education reduces prejudice. But in some countries, elites and education systems actively foment antisemitism. We test the association between them with a unique global dataset of individual-level survey data measuring antisemitic attitudes and stereotypes.

New study: How the relationship between education and antisemitism varies between countries journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Key finding: Association b/w education & stereotype endorsement varies by whether countries supported statements against Holocaust denial & antisemitism 🧵 below

Antisemitism is one of the oldest and most virulent prejudices. Recently, for instance, antisemitic incidents have increased both here in the U.S. and abroad. We explore the relationship between education and antisemitism in more than 100 countries using 2013-2017 data.

It's generally believed that education reduces prejudice. But in some countries, elites and education systems actively foment antisemitism. We test the association between them with a unique global dataset of individual-level survey data measuring antisemitic attitudes and stereotypes.

In countries where elites promote antisemitism,* educated respondents are more likely to endorse antisemitic stereotypes. The opposite is true in countries where elites do not promote antisemitism. *Proxied by non-support for statements condemning Holocaust denial & antisemitism

Our findings are correlational but suggest that education is not a panacea for reducing prejudice. In particular, more research is needed on how elites and education foment or reduce antisemitism. Read the paper for more! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... (or sites.dartmouth.edu/nyhan/files/...)

How the relationship between education and antisemitism varies between countries - Brendan Nyhan, Shun Yamaya, Thomas Zeitzoff, 2024journals.sagepub.com We investigate the relationship between education and antisemitism using unique individual-level survey data on antisemitism from more than 100 countries. Our f...

(co-authored with Shun Yamaya and @zeitzoff.bsky.social)

Looks interesting, will read. Education doesn't always reduce prejudice @cmfederico.bsky.social & Sidanius found it exacerbates relations between SDO & affirmative action opposition. psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d... Educated people can get "clever" about masking arguments, legitimizing etc.

APA PsycNetpsycnet.apa.org

Seems roughly consistent w/ opinion leadership models explaining white Dem shifts in racial resentment in the last decade, for example. Where edu is a proxy for Zaller-esque attn. Complicates the story of group attitudes as solid, in contrast w/ policy views. The former move too, tho less.

IOW, there are no "unmoved movers" in public opinion, but some move less than others.

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