The Limits of Demographic Categories and the Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election

This study looked at responses to the Iraq War in a nationwide sample of college students. The study focused mainly on the role of sex, religiosity, and the location of the school in a “red” or “blue” state. It also looked at a number of other psychological variables, including some related to cognitive competence. Support for the war was measured by an instrument comprising two independent factors—“patriotic militancy” and “internationalism.” As expected, support for the war in Iraq was significantly higher among students who considered themselves religiously involved than among students who rated themselves as more secular. Predicted sex differences in attitudes about the war were not found. However, several measures of cognitive competence including grade point average were significantly associated with less favorable attitudes toward the war. As expected from the election results later that year, students from “red” states were more supportive of the war than students from “blue” states. However, these effects appear to be due to a confound between religious affiliation and religiosity. The results are explained in terms of political rhetoric that focused on religious values as well as on the reduced importance of feminism as an ideological stance. They are discussed in terms of the need for a more social psychological analysis of political attitudes and behaviors that takes into account contextual factors and the transformation of demographic categories into meaningful psychological variables.