We know that attitudes are formed through socialisation experiences. University campuses are not only sites of formal classroom-based learning, where students learn about the social and political world, but are places where new friendships are formed, networks are developed, and where attendance can often mean less time spent with family and friends – who might have informed early attitudes.
We also know that our attitudes tend to be more malleable in the ‘impressionable years’ between ages 17-25, the period in which many will commence their undergraduate studies.
Our new study, published in the European japan rcs data Journal of Political Research, seeks to shed light on this. It asks: does studying at university cause us to become less Eurosceptic? Or does it simply appear this way because graduates are a highly selected group who tend to have different pre-adult experiences, and occupy different adult status environments, than non-graduates? of individuals.
Who tend to enrol at university differ from those who do not in important ways, and that studying at university tends to ‘open doors’ for graduates – granting them access to opportunities that their non-graduate counterparts may not have access to. So, it may be these selection-into-education and post-educational sorting effects – also referred to as ‘allocative’ effects – that shape attitudes, rather than any ‘direct’ causal effect of university study e.g., the socialisation experiences individuals are exposed to on university campuses.