Anti-Semitism and Education

A paper on anti-Semitism and education. A synopsis of the paper is that those who aren’t well-educated are considered to be more anti-Semitic than those who are well-educated. However, this may ascribed to the fact that the well-educated individuals’ response on a survey won’t fall for the blatantly anti-Semitic response.

An example is: ” Do you believe that Jews Control the Government and the Banks?” – A person with more formal education will usually respond ‘No’, whereas a person with less formal education will respond ‘Yes.’ The researchers designed a shrewd experiment to document if anti-Semitism exists insomuch as people hold Jews to double standards.

The conclusions were that well-educated were more-likely to hold Jews to double standards. An example of this is Version 1 of the query: ” Some countries have government established religions or officially recognize the leading religious group. For example, Israel’s Basic Law says, “The state of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, religious, and historic right to self-determination.” Do you believe that this provision is discriminatory? “And Version 2: ” Some countries have government established religions or officially recognize the leading religious group. For example, Denmark’s Constitution says, “The Evangelical Lutheran Church shall be the Established Church of Denmark, and, as such, it shall be supported by the State.” Do you believe that this provision is discriminatory?” –

People were randomly assigned to respond to respond to either Version 1/Version 2. People with more formal education had a greater probability of rating Version 1 as discriminatory, compared to Version 2.

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Link to the study: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/edrepub/121/