The Arrogant Scholar? Education and Political Tolerance in the Case of China

This thesis investigates the relationship between education and political intolerance in China, asking whether higher education fosters greater acceptance of political difference or reinforces ideological conformity. Drawing on data from the 2019 Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) Wave 5, which includes 4,941 valid responses from Mainland China (excluding Xinjiang and Tibet), political intolerance is measured through a binary recoding of responses to a question on comfort in conversing with individuals holding different political views. Education level serves as the main independent variable, with controls for subjective social status, political interest, generational cohort, and internal political efficacy. Bivariate and multivariate linear and logistic regression models reveal a statistically significant, though modest, positive association between education and tolerance. The effect remains significant after accounting for other variables, suggesting an independent influence of education, but one that explains only a small proportion of the variation in tolerance. Mediation analysis indicates that political efficacy—while positively associated with education—slightly reduces tolerance, partially offsetting education's net positive effect. These findings align in part with modernization and civic liberalism theories, which posit that education fosters pluralism, but also highlight a possible countervailing mechanism whereby political confidence, enhanced by education, may harden ideological boundaries. The results call for a more nuanced understanding of how education shapes civic attitudes in authoritarian contexts and suggest that similar mechanisms may operate in democratic societies experiencing polarization.