Working group The causal effect of foreign language learning on political attitudes Scottish education reforms reduced support for Brexit Add to calendar 2022-11-08 17:00 2022-11-08 18:30 Europe/Rome The causal effect of foreign language learning on political attitudes Seminar Room 2 Badia Fiesolana YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Nov 08 2022 17:00 - 18:30 CET Seminar Room 2, Badia Fiesolana Organised by Department of Political and Social Sciences In the framework of the EUI Political Behaviour Colloquium, this seminar features a paper presentation by UCL Lecturer Roland Kappe. This paper argues that foreign language learning in school can have a substantial (causal) effect on political attitudes later in life. Theory suggests that speaking foreign languages reduces perceptions of cultural distance and contributes to the formation of transnational identities (Kuhn 2011). Focusing on attitudes towards the Europe Union, prior research shows a link between foreign language skills and European identity (Kuhn 2015, Díez - Medrano 2017). These questions are often explored with a focus on direct benefits of actual language skills. This paper proposes an additional mechanism, and argues that foreign language learning and the exploration of other cultures during impressionable years in the language classroom can have a substantial effect on political attitudes. The problem with existing research is that self-reported language skills may be endogenous to attitudes, and language skills are correlated with other factors driving EU attitudes. The research design overcomes these challenges by leveraging plausibly exogenous variation in foreign language learning due to education reforms in Scotland starting in 1987 to estimate the causal effect of foreign language learning on political attitudes – and vote choice in the Brexit referendum. Using a regression discontinuity design, the results show that voters who started high school immediately after the reforms were substantially more likely to vote for Remain compared to cohorts not exposed to the reforms. A difference-indifference design that compares Scottish cohorts to those in England and Wales also leads to the same conclusion: An increase in foreign language learning had a substantial effect on the remain vote in Scotland.