Replication Data for: Education as identity? A meta-analysis of education-based in-group preferences in candidate choice experiments

In a climate where education stratifies electorates, does a university degree universally pay dividends at the polls or is there an education homophily premium, whereby graduates disproportionately select \"their own’\"? Via a meta-analysis and original subgroup heterogeneity test of 20 candidate choice conjoint experiments from 12 affluent democracies, we demonstrate university educated candidates boast a 5 percentage-point preferability bump over their less educated counterparts. We also find evidence of education-based identity biases, observing significant in-group preferability among degree holders. Graduates are more inclined to place a premium on candidates’ membership of their educational in-group and penalise those from the out-group vis-à-vis non-graduates. These results clearly highlight the importance of education in the candidate favourability calculus and demonstrate that education’s biasing effect in shaping preferences will likely ensure the continued dominance of university educated representatives in affluent democracies, particularly as university enrolment rates continue to rise.在教育分层选民的时代背景下，大学学历是否总能在选举中获得正向回报？抑或是存在教育同质性溢价（education homophily premium）——即毕业生会不成比例地选择“自己人”？本研究针对12个富裕民主国家的20项候选人选择联合实验（conjoint experiments）开展元分析与原创性亚组异质性检验，结果显示，受过大学教育的候选人相较于低学历同类候选人，其受欢迎程度高出5个百分点。我们还找到了基于教育身份的偏见证据：学位持有者群体中存在显著的内群体偏好（in-group preferability）。毕业生更倾向于重视属于自身教育内群体的候选人身份，相较于非毕业生，会对外群体候选人作出负面评价。上述结果清晰凸显了教育在候选人好感度评估中的核心地位，同时表明，教育在塑造选民偏好时产生的偏倚效应，或将使得受过大学教育的公职人员在富裕民主国家持续占据主导地位——尤其在大学入学率持续攀升的当下。