The Times
December 04, 2002
University boom creates era of sexual tolerance
By Helen Rumbelow
THE boom in university education has led to a sea change in Britain’s
tolerance of homosexuality, according to a report. Just under half the people
now believe that homosexuality is always or mostly wrong, down from three
quarters 15 years ago, according to the British Social Attitudes survey,
regarded as one of the best indicators of popular opinion.
That trend is mirrored by the attitude towards ethnic minorities, with 75 per
cent of people now saying they are not at all racially prejudiced, compared
with 60 per cent in 1987.
Geoffrey Evans, a politics professor at Oxford University, decided to focus on
what has caused Britain to become more open-minded in a report published
today. The study, from the National Centre for Social Research, is based on
interviews with a cross-section of 3,500 people.
Young people are much more tolerant than their elders, with a quarter of
twentysomethings believing that homosexual sex is always wrong, compared with
two thirds of pensioners.
But the key to converting a bigot is to send him or her to college, with
graduates twice as accepting of homosexuals as those with no GCSEs, and a
third less racist.
That transformation happened no matter what social class the student came from
and, with 41 per cent of young people now attending university, it was a
powerful social effect, Professor Evans said.
“Mr Blair’s famous mantra ‘education, education, education’ seems far less
consequential now than when first announced in 1997, as Britain struggles with
an overburdened health service and the reality that as more and more people
get degrees, degrees buy less and less,” he said.
“But the growth of higher education can provide a bulwark against the
undermining of liberal democracy through intolerance,” he added.
He decided to see whether the tolerance conferred by schooling was just
“political correctness” by testing how many civil rights the educated would
give to an unattractive minority: white supremacists.
Again, people scored higher the longer they had spent at school and
university, with nearly two thirds of graduates saying that white supremacists
should have the right to give television interviews or stand in elections,
three times as many as those with no qualifications.
It is not clear why those with higher education are more tolerant, the report
says, adding that it may be simply because university students have increased
contact with alternative points of view.
Professor Evans also looked at whether the young may grow out of their
idealism, but found the opposite to be true.
Thirtysomethings were more than twice as likely to say there was nothing wrong
with homosexuality as they were when they were in their early twenties. He
said that as these groups of more educated young people replaced the older
generation, Britain would become an ever more relaxed place.
Soft drugs have also grown in widespread acceptability, with more than half
the country wanting cannabis to be legalised, compared with a third seven
years ago. That is probably because the use of cannabis is now so widespread,
with a quarter of those surveyed saying that they had tried it.
A third of Labour voters, twice as many as Conservatives, had tried the drug,
and being young, living in London and having a degree also increased the
chances.
One issue that bucks the trend is hard drugs. Most take a strong position on
heroin that has got stronger over the past seven years. Now the proportion of
people who believe that heroin dealers should always be prosecuted has crept
up to 97 per cent.
“The views on heroin show that Britain is by no means becoming a liberal
free-for-all,” Alison Park, co-director of the study, said. “People are making
quite a clear distinction between what they think (of) as right and wrong.”
On other matters, the survey indicates that almost half those questioned think
that most of the social security budget goes on unemployment benefits — in
fact, they account for 6 per cent; that union membership has fallen by a fifth
in the past 18 years, with just under a third of workers in a union; and that
half those questioned oppose secondary school selection. In 1984 the figure
was 40 per cent.
The survey also indicates that 19 per cent of men aged between 25 and 34 live
with their parents, twice as many as women.
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