Social attitudes and education: Self‐selection or socialization?

The aim of this study was to replicate earlier findings (Ekehammar et al ., 1987) concerning the relationship between social attitudes and educational direction and field of study, by addressing further the causality issue. The sample comprised 256 Swedish adolescents from metropolitan Stockholm attending the two lowest grades in secondary school (modal age was 17 years). The main findings of the previous study were replicated, although the statistical power was weaker. Two higher‐order attitude dimensions (labeled Political‐economic conservatism and Social conservatism) discriminated between six groups, based on combinations of the two aspects of education. The main picture evidenced a socialization effect regarding Political‐economic conservatism and a self‐selection explanation for Social conservatism. Introducing intellectual ability as an independent variable in the causal model, affecting both educational direction and social attitudes, weakened the relationship, as compared to the previous study.