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Political Trust as a Rational Attitude: A Comparison of the Nature of Political Trust across Different Levels of Education

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  • Erika Elsas

Abstract

type="main"> This article examines whether political trust is a relatively more rational attitude for citizens with a higher level of education. Previous research has found the higher educated to have greater political attentiveness, knowledge and understanding. The proposition that they, consequently, trust politics in a more rational way has not been tested. The present study analyses how higher and lower educated citizens construct their political trust, by assessing the extent to which political trust is internally consistent, domain-specific and consistent with political evaluations across educational groups. This is explored by applying Mokken scale analysis and structural equation modeling to data from the 2010 Dutch Parliamentary Election Survey. The findings indicate that political trust is not a fundamentally different construct for the higher and lower educated. Political trust is, to some extent, a rational attitude for all citizens.

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  • Erika Elsas, 2015. "Political Trust as a Rational Attitude: A Comparison of the Nature of Political Trust across Different Levels of Education," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 63(5), pages 1158-1178, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:63:y:2015:i:5:p:1158-1178
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1467-9248.12148
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    Cited by:

    1. T. W. G. Meer & E. Ouattara, 2019. "Putting ‘political’ back in political trust: an IRT test of the unidimensionality and cross-national equivalence of political trust measures," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(6), pages 2983-3002, November.
    2. Meral Ugur-Cinar & Kursat Cinar & Tekin Kose, 2020. "How Does Education Affect Political Trust?: An Analysis of Moderating Factors," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 779-808, November.
    3. Jiaping Zhang & Zhiyong Cai & Mingwang Cheng & Huirong Zhang & Heng Zhang & Zhongkun Zhu, 2019. "Association of Internet Use with Attitudes Toward Food Safety in China: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-19, October.
    4. Lu, Wenyi & Zhuang, Shilong & Fan, Siyuan, 2024. "Losing trust when pursuing development: How automation hindered political trust in China?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 406-422.
    5. Geert Ten Dam & Anne Bert Dijkstra & Ineke Van der Veen & Anne Van Goethem, 2020. "What Do Adolescents Know about Citizenship? Measuring Student’s Knowledge of the Social and Political Aspects of Citizenship," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-24, December.
    6. Guanghua Han & Simin Yan, 2019. "Does Food Safety Risk Perception Affect the Public’s Trust in Their Government? An Empirical Study on a National Survey in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-15, May.

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