Why Evangelicals Like Wal-Mart: Education, Region, and Religious Group Identity

Abstract

Status gains made by evangelicals in recent decades create new factions within the evangelical movement, potentially distinguishing college-educated evangelicals from their less-educated counterparts in their attitudes on issues that separate other Americans along the dividing lines of social class. This paper tests the influence of evangelical identity upon a particular social issue by investigating Americans’ attitudes about Wal-Mart—a company that has historically appealed to evangelicals but not higher-status Americans. Using data from a 2005 survey of roughly 1,400 Americans, I find that self-identified evangelicalism is consistently associated with approval of the controversial retailer, while college education is linked to disapproval of Wal-Mart. However, the same effect does not persist among evangelicals, for whom college education has no consistent, significant effect on the odds of judging Wal-Mart unfavorably. I suggest that education may function differently for evangelicals than for the larger population, offsetting the liberalizing effects that are typically assumed to accompany attending college.