Components of the Belief Gap

Knowledge gap research focuses on education as an indicator ofsocioeconomic status (SES). Belief gap research centers on ideology as potentially morepowerful than education in comparing sociopolitical groups with scientificallyestablished knowledge and groups with opposing beliefs accepted on faith. This studyexamined the relationship between education and ideology to understand belief gapsbetter. The study used 2008 American National Election Study (ANES) data to compareconservatives, moderates, and liberals by education on religiosity, child rearingvalues, opinionation, need for cognition, orientation toward politics, and mass mediaaccess and use. Although liberals tended to be more educated than conservatives overall,better-educated conservatives had the highest household incomes and were a much largergroup. No known knowledge gap studies have reported results on one group characterizedby high education and an opposing group distinguished by a different indicator of SES.Reformulations of the belief gap hypothesis are offered