Does Knowledge of Constitutional Principles Increase Support for Civil Liberties? Results from a Randomized Field Experiment

被引：49

作者：

Green, Donald P. ^{[1
]}

Aronow, Peter M. ^{[1
]}

Bergan, Daniel E. ^{[2
]}

Greene, Pamela ^{[3
]}

Paris, Celia ^{[1
]}

Weinberger, Beth I.

机构：

[1] Yale Univ, Dept Polit Sci, New Haven, CT 06520 USA

[2] Michigan State Univ, Dept Commun, E Lansing, MI 48824 USA

[3] Yale Univ, Inst Social & Policy Studies, New Haven, CT 06520 USA

来源：

JOURNAL OF POLITICS | 2011年 / 73卷 / 02期

关键词：

POLITICAL TOLERANCE; EDUCATION;

D O I：

10.1017/S0022381611000107

中图分类号：

D0 [政治学、政治理论];

学科分类号：

0302 ; 030201 ;

摘要：

For decades, scholars have argued that education causes greater support for civil liberties by increasing students' exposure to political knowledge and constitutional norms, such as due process and freedom of expression. Support for this claim comes exclusively from observational evidence, principally from cross-sectional surveys. This paper presents the first large-scale experimental test of this proposition. More than 1000 students in 59 high school classrooms were randomly assigned to an enhanced civics curriculum designed to promote awareness and understanding of constitutional rights and civil liberties. The results show that students in the enhanced curriculum classes displayed significantly more knowledge in this domain than students in conventional civics classes. However, we find no corresponding change in the treatment group's support for civil liberties, a finding that calls into question the hypothesis that knowledge and attitudes are causally connected.

引用

页码：463 / 476

页数：14