A new paper in the American Sociological Review concludes that "higher education liberalizes moral concerns for most students, but it also departs from the standard liberal profile by promoting moral absolutism rather than relativism." The first part is expected, but the second is not--as the authors (Miloš Broćić and Andrew Miles) note, many people have said that higher education promotes "moral relativism." Their interpretation is that the effect of higher education has changed, possibly because of increased ideological homogeneity among faculty and administrators, which "could create a sense of moral consensus that leaves shared liberal beliefs unchallenged or might even make them seem naturally true."
Their measure of absolutism vs. relativism is agreement or disagreement with the statement: "some people say that morals are relative, that there are no definite rights and wrongs for everybody." In their sample (people aged 23-29 in 2012-13), about 48% of people who didn't attend college, 39% of people with some college, and 35% of college graduates agreed. I couldn't find this question in any previous survey, but I did find some others that could be regarded as measures of the same general concept:
A. "There are clear and absolute standards for what is right and wrong [or] whether something is right or wrong often depends on the situation." (PRRI 2018)
B. "There are some things that are just wrong regardless of the situation [or] what is wrong or right depends on the situation" (PRRI 2011)
C. "There are some things that are just wrong regardless of the situation [or] what is right or wrong almost always depends on the situation" (PRRI 2011)
D. Agree or disagree that "There are clear and absolute standards for what is right and wrong" (Pew 2007)
E. "Some people say that there are absolutely clear guidelines of what is good and evil, others say that there can never be absolutely clear guidelines of what is good and evil."
The percentages taking the "absolutist" position (clear and absolute standards or some things just wrong) on each of these questions, by education:
A B C D E
HS only 43% 54% 40% 84% 65%
Some college 38% 52% 46% 81% 62%
College grad 36% 54% 49% 72% 50%
On three of them, more educated people were less likely to take the "absolutist" position; on one, they were more likely, and on one there was no difference. So it seems that a lot depends on exactly what question you ask. I think the major reasons for that are that most people have not thought much about the general question, that virtually everyone believes both "absolutist" and "relativist" positions to some extent, and that there is such a large number or things that can be regarded as matters of right and wrong (not just political issues, but things involving relations with family, friends, neighbors, etc.). Since the relationship to education differs among the questions, and none of these have been repeated over a span of more than a few years, it's not possible to say anything about changes in "relativism" or in its relation to education.*
Andrew Sullivan tweeted about this paper, commenting "the fanaticism and absolutism of 'education'." But the position that Broćić and Miles label "absolutism" is not equivalent to political absolutism: for example, what if someone believes that there is a universal human right to free speech? That seems to imply disagreement with the proposition that "morals are relative."
Of course, people often say foolish things on Twitter, but this one is noteworthy because it's an example of a larger tendency. Over the last 50 years (or maybe more), parties of the left have gained among college graduates and lost ground among other voters. People on the left have generally been distressed by this change, and have tried to explain it. The explanations usually involve some failure by the left--either it hasn't offered policies that improve the lives of the working class, or hasn't shown enough empathy, or at least hasn't been good at messaging. On the right, the change has been welcomed: people boast about how the Republicans are now the "Party of the Working Class." There are few attempts to address the question of why they've lost ground among highly educated people, and those few tend to be like Sullivan's: just expressions of anger and contempt, rather than attempts at understanding.
[Data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research]
*Early versions of the World Values Survey offered a choice between "clear guidelines" that "always apply to everyone, regardless of the circumstances" and "depends entirely on the circumstances at the time", but that seemed to stop in 1995.
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