Educational Preferences Among Conservatives and Liberals in the United States: A Quantitative Survey Study

The purpose of this quantitative survey research study was to explore educational preferences among individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation and of both genders in the United States of America with a 13-questionnaire survey that includes questions relating to different educational preferences. The literature review has revealed previously conducted research study that suggest that individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation may have psychological differences in the domain of emotions, attention, self-control, and cognition. However, the literature review did not reveal research studies that explored educational preferences between individuals with conservative and liberal political orientation in the United States. The results suggest that statistically significant difference exists in the preference to study abroad (χ 2 (1, N = 200) = 3.739, p = 0.05). Additional differences, but without a statistically significant differences, were found in the preferences to read fiction and non-fiction genre, perform physically and non-physically challenging activities, perform reading and written assignments, and study in instructional settings where ration between the teachers and technology is uneven.


Introduction
Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation tend to provide different opinions about social issues, including fiscal policy, monetary policy, national security, immigration, education, foreign relations, and other (Conway III et al., 2016). It could be argued that political orientation is linked with different way of thinking and decision making. Some research studies may agree that individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation do have different mental activities. According to the Kanai et al. (2011), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans reveal that young individuals with liberal political orientation show increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex while young individuals with conservative political orientation show increased gray matter volume in the amygdala. These brain differences between individuals with conservative and liberal political orientations were further confirmed by Schreiber et al. (2013).
In addition to anatomical brain differences, research studies suggest that individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation may differ in their emotions, especially in their relation to fear and feeling of security and disgust. Research studies by Bonnano and Jost (2006), Jost et al. (2003), , Sales (1972), and Óscar and Baggio (2017) suggest that fear is more commonly experienced by conservative political orientation than by liberal political orientation and that fear can cause shift from liberal political orientation toward conservative political orientation ). In addition, research study by Napier et al. (2017) suggests that sense of security can shift political orientation from conservativism toward liberalism in social progress but not economically. Feelings about disgust may also be common emotional difference between individuals with conservative and liberal political orientation. A research study by Inbar and Pizzaro (2016) suggests that conservative political orientation may be linked with higher sensitivity to disgust whereas the research study by Oosterhoff et al. (2018) found similar results suggesting that the individuals of conservative political orientation may feel, and not be afraid to express their feelings of disgust when faced with insanitary conditions. Psychological differences between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientations were also revealed by Pew Research Center (2014) suggesting that political orientation may relate to spatial mental difference. According to the study, individuals of liberal political orientation are more likely to prefer smaller houses, urban areas, racial and ethnic diversity, and to live near art museums and theaters whereas individuals of conservative political orientation prefer larger houses, rural areas and small towns, emphasize shared religious faith, and would prefer to live with the people of same political opinions.
Further research studies suggest that cognitive differences between individuals with conservative and liberal political orientations may exist. Research study by Amodio et al. (2007) suggest that individuals with conservative political orientation exhibit more structured and persistent cognitive styles whereas the individuals with liberal political orientation are more likely to be more responsive to informational complexity. Cognitive differences between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientations were further recognizes in the research study by Salvi et al. (2016) where findings suggest that individuals with liberal political orientation tend to solve problems via intuition rather than step-by-step analytical fashion as is more common among individuals with conservative political orientation. Similar research studies conducted in China provided similar findings. Talhelm (2012), Talhelm et al. (2015) suggest that individuals of liberal political orientation think more analytically whereas the individuals of conservative political orientation are more likely to think holistically. Talhelm et al. (2015) further argue that training people to think in certain way can change their political orientation. Individuals who are trained to think analytically are more likely to adopt liberal political orientation whereas the individuals who were trained to think holistically are more likely to adopt conservative political orientation. Literature review reveals additional research studies suggesting that individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation may differ in their attention and self-control skills. A study by Dodd et al. (2011) revealed results suggesting that individuals with conservative political orientation may stronger attention and ability to focus than the individuals of liberal political orientation whereas the research study by Clarkson et al. (2015) revealed results suggesting that the self-control might be stronger among the individuals with conservative political orientation.
The literature review did not reveal recent research studies conducted in the past ten years regarding the educational preferences between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation. Research studies that would explore educational preferences between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation would provide information that would help educators and educational system in the United States to better understand educational needs and learning styles of its population.

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this quantitative survey research study is to explore educational preferences among individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation and of both genders in the United States of America with a 13-questionnaire survey that includes questions relating to different educational preferences. The literature review has revealed previously conducted research study that suggest that individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation may have psychological differences in the domain of emotions, attention, self-control, and cognition. However, the literature review did not reveal research studies that explored educational preferences between individuals with conservative and liberal political orientation in the United States. The current study will address this research gap and provide information that will benefit educators and educational system to better understand educational needs and preferences of individuals with different political orientations.

Theoretical Framework
Social learning theory by psychologist Albert Bandura was used as the theoretical framework for this quantitative survey research study. Social learning theory suggests that individuals learn, and adopt certain behaviors and opinions, by observing behaviors of others. Social learning theory incorporates features of operant conditioning and classical conditioning but also goes beyond traditional behaviorist theories and supports claims that learning is not direct product of reinforcement and exposure to a stimulus but also a product of observations of the environment (Bandura, 1971). Different political orientations and educational preferences that individuals adopt may be explained by social learning theory because individuals' political orientation may be product of their observation and interaction with parents, teachers, and other members of the society that were close to them (Bandura, 1971). Further, political orientation, as hypothesized in this research study may relate to individuals' educational preferences.

Research Questions
Previous research studies suggest that individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation may have different ways of thinking and perceiving the environment. However, previous research studies did not provide significantly differ in their preferences to study alone or in a group.
H05: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do not significantly differ in their preferences to attend traditional classes or online classes.
HA5: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do significantly differ in their preferences to attend traditional classes or online classes.
H06: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do not significantly differ in their preferences to work with numerical math tasks or geometrical math tasks.
HA6: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do significantly differ in their preferences to work with numerical math tasks or geometrical math tasks.
H07: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do not significantly differ in their preferences to visual arts or architectural arts.
HA7: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do significantly differ in their preferences to visual arts or architectural arts.
H08: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do not significantly differ in their preferences in learning second languages.
HA8: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do significantly differ in their preferences in learning second languages.
H09: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do not significantly differ, in their preference of physically challenging activities and physically non-challenging activities?
HA9: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do significantly differ, in their preference of physically challenging activities and physically non-challenging activities?
H010: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do not significantly differ, in their preferences to study abroad.
HA10: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do significantly differ, in their preferences to study abroad.

H011:
Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do not significantly differ, in their preferences to European and Non-European learning destinations. HA11: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, significantly differ, in their preferences to European and Non-European learning destinations.
H012: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do not significantly differ, in their preferences to reading assignments and written assignments? HA12: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do significantly differ, in their preferences to reading assignments and written assignments.
H013: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do not significantly differ, in their preferences to instructions with less teachers but more technology and instructions with more teachers but less technology.
HA13: Individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, do significantly differ, in their preferences to instructions with less teachers but more technology and instructions with more teachers but less technology.

Data Collection
That data in this quantitative survey research study were collected by a thirteen-questionnaire survey with nominal scale through SurveyMonkey from May 23, 2020 to May 24, 2020. The 13-questionnaire survey can be seen in Appendix A.

Population
The population in this research study consisted of individuals from the United States, ages 18 to 60, of both genders, and with conservative and liberal political orientation. According to the estimates of the US Census jel.ccsenet.org Journal of Education and Learning Vol. 9, No. 5; Bureau (2020), the population of the United States is approximately 329.8 million as of June 2020. The US Census Bureau does not provide information about political orientations of the citizens of the United States. However, according to Gallup (2020) report, approximately 35% of the United States population described themselves as conservative and 26% described themselves as liberal in 2018. Therefore, based on these reports, it can be estimated that the population of the citizens of the United States with conservative orientation is approximately 115.4 million (n = 115.4 million) and the liberal orientation is approximately 85.7 million (n = 85.7 million).

Sample Size
A random selection method was used to choose the participants of the study. A total of 230 participants responded to the research study via SurveyMoneky, of whom 200 were randomly selected to participate in this research study, 100 participants with conservative political orientation and 100 participants with liberal political orientation.

Materials/Instruments
The instrument for data collection was a 13-questionnaire survey seen in Appendix A. The survey included 13 questions with nominal scale relating to demographic information and educational preferences. The survey was administrated through SurveyMonkey, an online software tool designed for online surveys and data collection.

Data Analysis
The collected data was analyzed by SPSS online software. Chi-square test was used to analyze collected data and test the null hypotheses. The statistical difference (Sig.) between the survey results from both groups was used to answer research questions and to determine whether to retain or reject the null hypotheses. A p-value of less or equal than 5% (p ≤ 0.05) indicated that the test is statistically significant and the null hypotheses was rejected, whereas the null hypotheses was retained for every research question where the p-value proved to be greater than 5% (p > 0.05).

RQ1
: What difference, if any, is there between individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, in their reading preferences of fiction and nonfiction genre?
As indicated in Table 2 and Table 3, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, and their reading preference of fiction and nonfiction genre, χ ² (1, N = 200) = 1.333, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypotheses were not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to read fiction.

RQ2
: What difference, if any, is there between individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, in their reading preferences of books and short stories?
As indicated in Table 4 and Table 5, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, and their reading preference of books and short stories, χ ² (1, N = 200) = .092, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypotheses were not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to read books than short stories.

RQ3
: What difference, if any, is there between individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, in their preferences of written tests and oral tests?
As indicated in Table 6 and Table 7, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, and their preferences of written tests and oral tests, χ ² (1, N = 200) = 1.339, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypotheses were not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to prefer written tests than oral tests.   Vol. 9, No. 5; RQ4: What difference, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, in their preferences to study alone or in groups?
As indicated in Table 8 and Table 9, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, and their preferences to study alone or in groups, χ ² (1, N = 200) = .090, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypotheses were not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to prefer to study alone than in a group.

RQ5
: What difference, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, to attend traditional classes or online classes?
As indicated in Table 10 and Table 11, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, and their preferences to attend traditional classes or online classes, χ ² (1, N = 200) = 1.100, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypotheses were not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to prefer to attend traditional classes than online classes.

RQ6
: What difference, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, with their preferences to work with numerical tasks or geometrical tasks in the math courses?
As indicated in Table 12 and Table 13, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, and their preferences to work jel.ccsenet.org Journal of Education and Learning Vol. 9, No. 5; with numerical tasks or geometrical tasks in the math class, χ ² (1, N = 200) = .099, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypotheses were not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, prefer to work with numerical tasks in math.

RQ7:
What difference, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, in their preferences of visual arts and architectural arts?
As indicated in Table 14 and Table 15, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, and their preferences of visual arts and architectural arts, χ ² (1, N = 200) = .676, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypotheses were not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, prefer visual arts over architectural arts.

RQ8:
What difference, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, in learning second languages?
As indicated in Table 16 and Table 17, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, in learning second languages, χ ² (1, N = 200) = .312, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypothesis was not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to have interest in learning second languages than not to learn second languages.

RQ9:
What difference, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, in their preference of physically challenging activities and physically non-challenging activities?
As indicated in Table 18 and Table 19, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, in their preferences of physically challenging activities and physically non-challenging activities, χ ² (1, N = 200) = 1.621, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypothesis was not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to have interest in physically challenging activities than physically not challenging activities.  RQ10: What differences, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation from the United States, of both genders, in their preferences to study abroad?
As indicated in Table 20 and Table 21, in the United States, there is statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, in their preferences to study abroad, χ ² (1, N = 200) = 3.739, p = 0.05. Therefore, the null hypothesis was not accepted, the alternative hypothesis was not rejected. The findings suggest that participants of liberal political orientation, and both genders, are more likely to have interest to study abroad than the participants of conservative political orientation.

RQ11
: What difference, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation in the United States, of both genders, in their preferences to European and Non-European learning destinations?
As indicated in Table 22 and Table 23, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, in their preferences to European and Non-European learning destinations, χ ² (1, N = 200) = .026, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypothesis was not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to have interest in European learning destinations than Non-European learning destinations.

RQ12
: What difference, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation in the United States, of both genders, in their preference to reading assignments and written assignments? Table 24 and Table 25, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, in their preferences to reading assignment and written assignments, χ ² (1, N = 200) = 1.100, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypothesis was not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to have interest in reading assignments than written assignments.

RQ13
: What difference, if any, is there between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation in the United States, of both genders, in their preference to instructions with less teachers but more technology and instructions with more teachers but less technology?
As indicated in Table 26 and Table 27, in the United States, there is no statistically significant difference between the individuals' political orientation in the United States, of both genders, in their preferences to instructions with less teachers but more technology and instructions with more teacher but less technology, χ ² (1, N = 200) = 2.450, p > 0.05. Therefore, the null hypothesis was not rejected, the alternative hypothesis was not accepted. The findings suggest that participants of both political orientations, and both genders, are more likely to have interest in instructions with less teachers but more technology than the instructions with more teachers but less technology.

Conclusion
The purpose of this quantitative survey research study was to explore educational preferences among individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation and of both genders in the United States of America with a 13-questionnaire survey that includes questions relating to different educational preferences. The literature review has revealed research studies suggesting psychological differences between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation. However, the literature review did not reveal research studies about educational preferences between the individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation. The total of 240 participants registered with SurveyMonkey voluntarily participated in this research study and completed the 13-questionnaire survey with nominal scale. Random selection was used to select 200 participants for further study, 100 participants for each group. The collected data was entered and analyzed with SPSS software. Chi-square test was used to analyze collected data and test the null hypotheses. The statistical difference (Sig.) between the survey results from both groups was used to answer research questions and to determine whether to retain or reject the null hypotheses. A p-value of less or equal than 5% (p ≤ 0.05) indicated that the test is statistically significant and the null hypotheses was rejected, whereas the null hypotheses was retained for every research question where the p-value proved to be greater than 5% (p > 0.05). The results for all thirteen questions revealed differences and similarities in educational preference of individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation. However, the statistically significant difference was only found in RQ10 (χ ² (1, N = 200) = 3.739, p = 0.05.) suggesting that the participants of liberal political orientation are more likely to express an interest in studying abroad than the participant of conservative political orientation. In addition, the analysis of the results did not reveal statistically significant difference in the answer responses in research questions RQ1 (χ ² (1, N = 200) = 1.333, p > 0.05); RQ9 (χ ² (1, N = 200) = 1.621, p > 0.05); RQ12 (χ ² (1, N = 200) = 1.100, p > 0.05); and RQ13 (χ ² (1, N = 200) = 2.450, p > 0.05). However, the difference in the answer responses suggests that educational preferences in those areas may possibly exist. In RQ1, 64% of participants of liberal orientation expressed interest in fiction genre over non-fiction genre while 56% of participants of conservative orientation expressed interest in fiction genre over non-fiction genera. In RQ9, 56% of the participants with conservative political orientation expressed interest in physically challenging activities over non-physically challenging activities and 47% of participants of liberal political orientation expressed interest in physically challenging activities over non-challenging activities. In RQ12, both groups of participants expressed higher interest for reading assignments over written assignments. However, the percentage of participants of liberal political orientation who expressed interest in reading assignments was 70% and 63% for conservatives. In the domain of written assignments, 37% of participants with conservative political orientation expressed interest in written assignments over reading assignments and 30% of the participants with liberal political orientation expressed interest in written assignments over reading assignments. In RQ13, results reveal that participants of conservative political orientation are more likely to choose instructional settings with less teachers and more technology (61%) whereas participants of liberal orientation were equally likely to choose instructional settings with less teachers and more technology and settings with more teachers and less technology. The research questions RQ1, RQ9, RQ12, RQ13 revealed the results that indicate differences in educational preferences between the two groups in this research study, but without statistically significant difference. The future research studies with larger number of participants are needed in order to determine whether or not the statistically significant difference exists. In addition, the research questions RQ2, RQ3, RQ4, RQ5, RQ6, RQ7, RQ8, RQ11 revel results suggesting that both groups strongly prefer one option over the other. In RQ2, the results suggest that both groups strongly prefer books over short stories. In RQ3, the results suggest that both groups strongly prefer written exams over oral exams. In RQ4, the results suggest that both groups strongly prefer to study alone rather than in a group. In RQ5, the results suggest that both groups strongly prefer traditional classrooms over online classrooms. In RQ6, the results suggest that both groups strongly prefer to work with numerical math tasks rather than geometrical match tasks. In RQ7, the results suggest that both groups strongly prefer visual arts over architectural arts. In RQ8, the results suggest that both groups express strong interest in learning second languages. In RQ11, the results suggest that both groups would choose a European learning destination if they could study abroad than a Non-European learning destination. The future research studies on educational preferences and political orientation are recommended in order to get a closer insight into the relationship between those two variables. A research studies with more participants, different research methods, and different geographical location could provide new information beneficial for educators and educational systems throughout the world. 13. What would be your ideal learning environment? a) Environment with less teachers but more technology b) Environment with more teachers but less technology

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