Menschen, die eine mehrjährige formale Ausbildung absolvieren, schneiden tendenziell schlechter bei Maßstäben des rechten Autoritarismus ab, einer Eigenschaft, die durch strikten Gehorsam gegenüber Führern und die Einhaltung traditioneller Normen gekennzeichnet ist. Eine Studie an Zwillingen zeigt, dass der größte Teil des Zusammenhangs durch Umwelt und Genetik erklärt wird.

People who complete more years of formal education tend to score lower on measures of right-wing authoritarianism, a trait characterized by strict obedience to leaders and adherence to traditional norms. A recent study of twins reveals that while part of this connection may be a direct result of schooling, most of the link is explained by the childhood environments and genetics that siblings share. These results were recently published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

The statistical models estimated that 47 percent of the overlap between education and lower authoritarianism was the result of shared environmental factors. This means that elements of a twin’s shared upbringing simultaneously boosted their likelihood of going to college and depressed their tendency toward authoritarianism. Roughly 15 percent of this total shared environmental effect was traced back directly to the family’s social class during childhood. Growing up in a wealthy, high-status household seems to organically encourage advanced schooling while steering children away from rigid conservative ideologies.

An additional 25 percent of the relationship was tentatively attributed to shared genetics. While the researchers calculated this influence, they noted that the genetic connection was not statistically significant on its own. Inherited traits, such as natural cognitive ability or deeply ingrained personality characteristics, might still influence both a person’s academic trajectory and their political orientation. For instance, people born with a high openness to new experiences might naturally gravitate toward universities and naturally repel authoritarian dogma.

After accounting for both shared upbringing and shared genetics, the researchers found that 28 percent of the original correlation remained unaccounted for. This leftover portion aligns with the theory that education has a genuine, direct impact on a person’s adult worldview. Though they could not definitively label it as an absolute causal effect, the persistent relationship within identical twin pairs strongly supports the idea that formal education independently softens authoritarian impulses.

For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01461672251407779