Contemporary descriptions of the classes and strata of Western societies emphasize cultural differences as well as economic inequalities. Most of the time, it is about lifestyle issues: what you eat, how you dress and what you spend your free time differs depending on the socio-economic situation. In addition, stratification and lifestyle correlate with political and moral attitudes: sympathies for train drivers, CEOs or endangered animal species are very different in individual milieus. The spectrum of different lifestyles and cultural orientations is currently often sharpened to the contrast between "cosmopolitans" and "local", that is, between a mobile,On the one hand, an attitude that is open to new influences and models of life and one - be it out of necessity or a free decision - rather locally oriented and skeptical of changes. Cosmopolitan culture is considered the domain of big city dwellers, especially those who have a university degree.
This raises the question of how academic training can reinforce or change cultural preferences. This has been discussed for some time in the USA. Conservatives complain that the liberal academic elite at colleges and universities are waging a "culture war" in favor of their own values under the banner of political correctness. This is supported by the fact that universities have not only emerged as places of left and progressive movements since 1968. In a recent study, two sociologists from the University of Toronto are investigating whether this has to do with the fact that they favor certain political and moral attitudes and socialize their members accordingly.
Longitudinal data collected over ten years from a cohort of adolescents and young adults can be used, for example, to understand changes in moral convictions and to determine the influence of academic training more precisely. Previous studies have already shown some effects: For example, attending a university changes moral reasoning in the direction of abstract and universalistic principles; prejudices are also reduced and the ability to put oneself in other people's shoes is increased. Such changes fit the hypothesis that moral attitudes are related to cognitive development. Other observations point to differences between the disciplines studied and thus to the fact that socialization processes play a decisive role:Subjects are subcultures in which certain norms and moral concepts are cultivated and passed on. In terms of content, academic morality tends, especially in the opinion of its critics, to a relativism that understands morality as context-related and changeable.
The empirical data confirm both the cognitive and socialization hypotheses. Graduates tend to have a more progressive view of moral issues; this applies in particular to graduates in the humanities and social sciences. The share that academic training has in this change in attitudes is as high as that which can be traced back to strong religious convictions (and it can outweigh them accordingly). However, although the changeability of moral principles is affirmed, no relativism is advocated, which considers generally valid values and rules to be fundamentally impossible or rejects them. On the contrary: the values, which largely correspond to a liberal model, are represented with a high degree of conviction.The authors of the current study paint the picture of a “moral absolutism” that does not refer to traditionally conservative values and social stability, but to adaptation and willingness to change.
To explain this, the authors refer to a third mechanism of moral change: According to this, not only socialization takes place at universities, but also education.
In the humanities and social sciences in particular, it is taught that social morality is elastic and adaptable.
But one's own contemporary moral concepts are evidently not reflected as contingent, but rather assumed to be true.
If the university gives the appearance of a “moral consensus” among its members, it is only logical if the students ultimately come to the conviction that moral learning does not concern themselves but only others.