These perceptions, in turn, shape and define individuals' definitions of who they are and how they should behave in the political and economic institutions in which they live.
This learning process shapes perceptions that influence which norms, behaviors, values, opinions, morals, and priorities will ultimately shape their political ideology: it is a "study of the developmental processes by which people of all ages and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes, and behaviors.
In the case of political socialization, the most significant agents include, but are not limited to, families, media, education, and peers.
[4][5] Literature examines how aspects of family structures and dynamics change the varying influence of the offspring's values as a function of the distribution of their parent's attitudes.
[2] Literature suggest that the transmission of intergenerational political attitudes shows a strong lineage concerning their parents and siblings.
[15] Ultimately, however, the common core of information, and the interpretation the media applies to it, leads to a shared knowledge and basic values throughout a given entity.
[3] In turn, identifying that civic influences towards change in an educational setting are vital in establishing generational political differences during socialization during adolescence.
The theological and moral perspectives offered by religious institutions shape judgment regarding political attitudes and, ultimately, translate to direct influence on political matters such as "the redistribution of wealth, equality, tolerance for deviance, individual freedom, the severity of criminal punishment, policies relating to family structure, gender roles, abortion, anti-gay rhetoric, and the value of human life.
For example, news outlets on the East Coast tend to cover international affairs in Europe and the Middle East the most, while West Coast news outlets are more likely to cover Asian affairs; this demonstrates that community region affects patterns in political socialization.
[27] Given the socialization of their parents, cousins, grandparents, peers, and education, all have a significant role in teaching their youth about the relationship one has with the other state.
In that case, they will be the political socialization inclination to obtain conservative attitudes in the United States because of the regional movements from a leftist government in Cuba.
In terms of family, in early childhood, indirect exposure, such as parenting styles, or sibling composition might be more relevant, than direct political discussions.
Given that childhood is when a human is the most impressionable the influential of agents of socialization is significant as children's brains are "prime for learning", thus more likely to take messages of political attitudes of the world at face value.
[30] The literature argues that pre-adult socialization in both childhood and adolescence has a longstanding and stable catalyzing influence from political events.
Most people choose what content they are exposed to based on their already existing values, and they use information from a favorable source to simply reaffirm what they already believe.