system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Are the better educated more likely to be left wing or right wing?

I have often heard that their is a positive correlation between education and left wing believes.

At the same time, however, I know education level also correlates with wealth, and the wealthier are more likely to be conservative.

So how does it work out?
gpt
The quick summary of patterns in the General Social Survey:

- At any point in time, slightly more Americans identify as conservative than liberal.

- Both the least educated (< HS) and the highest educated (grad. degree) self identify more liberal on average. The middle leans conservative.

- Partisans in either direction are better educated than moderates on average.

- The overall correlation is that liberals are slightly better educated on average. This gap is widened when looking at white Americans only.

- More educated people generally have preferences that don't fit tidily into a left right spectrum. To summarize, controlling for race, income, sex, and party affiliation, more educated people lean right on economic issues and left on social issues. Social issues seem to carry more weight in defining one's self identification as liberal or conservative.