Some Political Implications of Students' Acquisition of Social Science Information

This paper investigates whether there is some relationship between students' political orientations and their knowledge of the findings of social science. Data on students enrolled in social science courses at four colleges reveal that those with relatively high scores on a test of social science knowledge tend to be politically more liberal and to be more involved with politics than others. The findings are interpreted in part as the result of certain attitudes and beliefs which students have prior to encountering social science information and in part as a consequence of becoming knowledgeable in social science. The study suggests the fruitfulness of further inquiries into the role of cognition in political life in general and the role of social science knowledge in ideological life in particular.