Birth Cohort Changes in the Effects of Social Class on Political Tolerance

• In Event: 594 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 20. Intolerance

Abstract

Political tolerance—the willingness to extend civil liberties to traditionally stigmatized groups such as atheists, communists, and gays and lesbians—is pivotal to the functioning of democracy and the wellbeing of members of stigmatized groups. Of the myriad factors that predict tolerance toward outgroups, social class continues to be especially significant. We investigate changes in the impact of social class on support for extending civic liberties to outgroups during a time of increasing tolerance towards stigmatized groups. We argue that while political tolerance was once a view more commonly held by American elites, the willingness to extend civil liberties to stigmatized groups has diffused across the populace, mitigating the relevance of social class in predicting tolerance. Using age-period-cohort models and more than three and a half decades of repeated cross-sectional survey data, we find a persistent and robust decline in the importance of both income and education in determining levels of political tolerance. Additionally, we find that this decline in the effect of social class on political tolerance occurs across birth cohorts rather than time periods. Our findings speak to larger theoretical discussions of changes in public opinion through the processes of cultural diffusion and cohort replacement.

Authors

• Philip Schwadel, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Christopher Garneau, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma