Why Evangelicals Like Wal-Mart: Education, Region, and Religious Group Identity
Status gains made by evangelicals in recent decades create new factions within the evangelical movement, potentially distinguishing college-educated evangelicals from their less-educated counterparts in their attitudes on issues that separate other Americans along the dividing lines of social class....
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2011
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| In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 2011, Volume: 72, Issue: 1, Pages: 50-77 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | Status gains made by evangelicals in recent decades create new factions within the evangelical movement, potentially distinguishing college-educated evangelicals from their less-educated counterparts in their attitudes on issues that separate other Americans along the dividing lines of social class. This paper tests the influence of evangelical identity upon a particular social issue by investigating Americans’ attitudes about Wal-Mart—a company that has historically appealed to evangelicals but not higher-status Americans. Using data from a 2005 survey of roughly 1,400 Americans, I find that self-identified evangelicalism is consistently associated with approval of the controversial retailer, while college education is linked to disapproval of Wal-Mart. However, the same effect does not persist among evangelicals, for whom college education has no consistent, significant effect on the odds of judging Wal-Mart unfavorably. I suggest that education may function differently for evangelicals than for the larger population, offsetting the liberalizing effects that are typically assumed to accompany attending college. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srq078 |