The relationship between educational attainment and Right-Wing Authoritarianism: a discordant twin study

Abstract

While it is well-established that educational attainment and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) are negatively correlated, it remains unclear why, as causal effects are hard to distinguish from the effects of confounders. Here, we use an adaptation of the discordant twin design in a structural equation framework (ACE-β models) with 1264 Norwegian monozygotic and dizygotic twins, to investigate whether education and RWA remain associated after controlling for confounders from genes and environmental influences shared by twins. Our model estimates that 25% of the covariance between education and RWA reflects genetic confounders, 47% reflects shared-environmental confounders, and 28% of the covariance remains unaccounted for. This remaining covariance then reflects causal effects and/or environmental confounders not shared by twins. Perceived socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood accounted for about one-third of the shared-environmental confounding. We did not find evidence that effects of education on RWA are mediated by perceived SES in adulthood.