I

was wondering whether people who are more educated and wealthier are more tolerant

of homosexuality. According to the General Social Survey, the answer is yes.

I guess this result is intuitive, but I always like to check.

Education and income each correlate with tolerance. I don’t have the time right

now to figure out whether the real driver is education (which may increase both

income and tolerance). There could be a third factor underlying the relationship,

such as urbanicity, age, religious denomination, or region. But just to dramatize

the basic situation, here is a graph that contrasts upper-middle-class people

who have college degrees (in blue) and lower-income people with no more than

high school (in red). The difference in attitudes toward gays is pretty stark.