Abstract
This study applies the knowledge gap and the belief gap hypotheses to explore knowledge about same-sex marriage rights in the United States. Whereas the knowledge gap predicts that individuals of higher socioeconomic status will be better informed on political issues, the belief gap suggests that that political ideology is a stronger predictor of knowledge and beliefs than education or income levels. Results from this study indicated that higher income levels were a significant predictor of more knowledge about same-sex marriage policy but education was not related to knowledge. As for the belief gap, political party affiliation was not a stronger predictor of knowledge than education level. However, political party affiliation and partisan media (both conservative and liberal) indirectly impacted knowledge through attitudes toward homosexuality, such that Democratic partisanship and liberal media use indirectly led to more knowledge about same-sex marriage rights and conservative media indirectly led to less knowledge about same-sex marriage rights.
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