educated/liberal

So I've seen many studies that show that the more educated you are, the more liberal you tend to be. It's completely obvious from my experience that there is definately a correlation between the two.
Danny and I were talking a while ago, though. The question is, is it because you are more educated that you are more liberal, or the other way around. I just don't know because both make sense.

1. You are more liberal because you are more educated. This is what I was leaning towards because it fits me. As I got more educated I've gotten more and more liberal. Education opens your eyes to the world. It has taught me to question the status quo and that I don't need to be afraid of things that are different.

2. You are more educated because you are more liberal. This is the one Danny sortof leans towards. Which it makes sense too. Liberals tend to want to know more about the world. Conservatives tend to have the political attitude of this is how we do it, screw the other guys. So there is a lack of desire there to learn about the other guys.

So I don't know, I can see both sides. I wish there were more studies done on this. I think it's really interesting.