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: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
2011
|
In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 2011, Volume: 72, Issue: 1, Pages: 50-77 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Parallel Edition: | Electronic
|
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. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srq078 |