Does educational attainment influence the relationship between political orientation and opinions toward the Affordable Care Act?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research shows political orientation and educational attainment play important roles in shaping attitudes toward many social issues. While political differences in attitudes toward the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have been observed, few have explored the effects of education on this relationship. Conventional wisdom suggests education has a liberalising effect on attitudes, yet empirical research does not always support this assumption. We examine the relationship between education, political orientation (including attitudes toward former President Obama), and attitudes toward the ACA using a sample of U.S. adults from four 2014 Pew Research Center surveys. We find that when education is considered independently, individuals with more education have lower odds of disapproving of the ACA, suggesting that educational attainment has the effect of liberalising public opinion toward the legislation. Nevertheless, when an interaction effect between educational attainment and political orientation is considered, we find that with more education, Republicans, conservatives, and those with negative perceptions of former President Obama actually have greater odds of disapproving of the ACA compared to their political peers with less education. Thus, overall, greater educational attainment appears to reinforce the effects of political orientation on attitudes toward the ACA.