How the Liberal University Hurts the Liberal Student | 5 Minute Video

Are most college professors liberal? Yes, says Penn State Associate Professor of Political Science and Philosophy Matthew Woessner. Perhaps surprisingly, however, his research shows that liberal bias does not seem to influence right-leaning students. Rather, it insulates left-leaning students, hindering their ability to critically analyze their own ideas. In five minutes, learn more about college liberal bias.

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Script:

Is higher education politically liberal? The answer is clearly, "yes." In virtually every field within academia, the great majority of professors identify strongly with both leftist causes and the Democratic Party.

Renowned Sociologist Seymour Lipset was one of the first to examine this question. Based on a number of surveys taken since World War II, Lipset concluded that academics are more likely than any other occupational group to identify their views as left or liberal. Professors tend to support a wide variety of egalitarian social and economic policies. They are far more likely to vote for Democratic candidates, and in many cases back leftist third parties. While Lipset based his conclusions on faculty surveys from the 1950s through the early 1980s, more recent studies show that the professoriate's commitment to leftist politics has only strengthened.

In our book, The Still Divided Academy, my colleagues April Kelly-Woessner, the late Stanley Rothman, and I take an in depth look at faculty views at the beginning of this century. Consistent with earlier studies we find, that a near twelve percent of professors see themselves as Republicans. But even this statistic is deceiving. Among this small minority of faculty who call themselves Republicans, fifty-one percent are pro-choice; sixty three percent support more environmental regulations, even though it could cost people their jobs. And thirty-nine percent of Republicans believe that the government should work to reduce the income gap between the rich and the poor.

So not only are there relatively few Republicans in the ranks of faculty, but many of the Republican professors hold views that are identical to Democrats outside of academia. Based on the best evidence, fewer than one in 10 professors hold conservative social, political, moral, or economic views.

Although college professors are overwhelmingly on the left, there are big differences in the political values of faculty depending on their field. Dan Klein, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and his colleagues conducted an in-depth study of six academic disciplines: Anthropology, Economics, History, Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology. Within these fields, faculty backed the Democratic candidate over Republican candidates by a ratio of 15 to 1. The Left's advantage was most lopsided in Anthropology and Sociology, where Democratic faculty voters outnumbered Republican voters by approximately 30 to 1. In Political Science faculty support for the Democrats over Republicans runs only 7 to 1 and in Economics the ratio is a mere 3 to 1.

[canadiangreasebag]

going to a liberal university actually made me a conservative strangely enough

[hag]

I survived college and I'm not a liberal. Don't fret, you can survive college and come out without being brainwashed.

[filiusreticulum]

I would say some lecturers(and students) are afraid to admit they are republican

[nathanrybner]

Had this guy as a teacher like 7 years ago, great teacher!

[silentArtist]

I prefer professors to come off as neutral. Providing arguments for both sides of the issue and letting students decide what to believe is ideal. The professors that try to defend an unpopular opinion for the sake of discussion are always interesting. I'm a liberal btw
I hold some conservative views though.

[TheZalor]

Personally I don't identify with any political party, but if I had to pick, I suppose I'm more of a "liberal" than "conservative". That said, I actually completely agree with the video. No matter what your beliefs are, you should hear the opposing side for your own benefit. Sometimes YOU are wrong, and the other side is right, other times it is the reverse. But you can only make an informed decision when you know both sides of the argument.

[TheCookiezPlz]

Opposite effect on me. I went in to university identifying as liberal, then rejected that ideology when I saw firsthand how batshit insane liberalism could be.

[ponycentaur]

when i went into California's college experience, i couldnt find many conservative teachers. Anything against liberal agendas tend to be automatically called: ' a and so-on. When questioning something, it labels you 'intollerant'. I could not handle being there and just left. I thought i was going to expand my mind, but rather, i was shoved on what "you HAVE to know''.

[josephang]

I can't understand how a student of economics can be liberal or left wing.

It's like throwing away all you knowledge about basics of supply and demand.

If you study arts, humanities, sociology or anothing like that, I understand the liberal bias.

[snakeySnakeybakey]

this morning, as i walked to school; it was so cold, that i saw a Liberal with his hands in is OWN pockets!!!

[alejandromartin]

I remember entering a class of medieval history in college. The teacher said flat out the first day. I'm an atheists. There is no God and I know because I have a PHD in antropology. Christianity is evil. And if you have problems with this then you might want to get out of the class.

This is allowed.

I wonder if a teacher had the same conviction about Christianity what would happen to him.

[istvanpraha]

This is really sad.  I didn't realize how liberal my college professors were until years later, even though they were always talking about being aware of biases.

[jscottupton]

It's easy to be a (contemporary) liberal. All you have to do is "feel sympathy for the poor, minorities, those who need help". Being an ideological conservative (I'm not talking about "reactionary conservatives" involves thinking. "How can I help the poor without stealing money from the taxpayers or turning people into welfare junkies?" (private charity). What is the best way to prevent war? (carry a big stick). How can we make healthcare, education and our lives in general better? (get the government out of these things and require self-responsiblity and parental responsibility. Encourage more private charity for the truly needy and get rid of excessive regulations which destroy jobs like minimum wage laws).

[koyunbaba]

As a rule, conservative professors do not reveal their political views to anybody but their closest colleagues, and in some cases, students (almost always mature students) with whom they have a close relationship. The consequences (both for students and professors) of revealing that you hold conservative views are serious. Left wing professors will fail conservative students and demean them in front of the entire class. I've seen this happen many times, and the university I went to was relatively neutral in comparison with other universities. 

I also want to say that when kids begin university at the age of 18 or 19, they are very much a blank slate when it comes to political views. Just the volume alone of the massive onslaught of Leftist ideas make it next to impossible that a student will not have a serious Leftist bias by the time he finishes his undergrad.

Also, I belonged to one of the only conservative organizations when I went to university. There were eight different Muslim student groups, there were dozens of Leftist groups. And these groups had cart blanche to say and write whatever they wanted. Our group was not afforded that basic right to say and print what we want. Our group was the Zionist student group. I wrote an article which basically just said that we Jews and Israelis are not just going to disappear because the rest of the world is offended at our existence. For that article, our Zionist club was shut down by the university. The Muslim groups advocated terrorism at times and they were not shy about seeking the destruction of Israel, but they got to keep their club.

Yeah, I guess you could say I'm pretty disgusted, not so much that the Left and Islamic groups are so prominent at university, but that other groups that made the Leftists and the Muslims uncomfortable were not allowed to exist. And they have the nerve to suggest that the University is a place that values the free exchange of ideas. They value the free exchange of THEIR ideas, and nothing else.  

[billybassman]

I come across college students all the time and I'm shocked how misinformed they are. Not just on conservative viewpoints, but politics and economics in general. Most tend to be open to new ideas, but they have just never been offered the information. The problem in most college campuses is their minds has been made up on most issues. The far left use fear, intimidation and exclusion (you're not cool) to crush diverse discussions. "How dare you question women's rights, gay rights, minority rights, tolerance, climate To them anyone not liberal such as republicans are ignorant, old fashion and racist. It's really sad now narrow minded they are. Even things like dress and food choices are met with ridicule. This narrow mindedness spills into real world innovation in the medical and scientific world. Professions afraid to express new ideas for fear of being labelled and ostracized. Imagine what would have come of the many great ideas over the years if collages treated people with apposing views as they do today?

[TheArchive]

Should come to the UK, political positions are largely put out of the class room. In all my years of education, I can only remember one highly political lecturer, she was of course a leftist. She also forced me to write things like "Socialised Healthcare Is Free" otherwise I'd fail.

Educators that get political can't be trusted in their profession to provide quality teaching, it saddens me that this has plagued the American education system.

[Youbeentagged]

Just remembered a story from valuetainment:

I was a Conservative student who went to a Liberal school. Everytime I had a Conservative opinion, 20 students would attack me and the teacher defended them.
Because they were defended, they didn't need to do research to make their point stronger, but everytime the teacher disagreed with me, I did.
As a result I got better at debating and they did not.

[mikelipsey]

I'm surprised by all of the down-votes.  Do liberals camp out on conservative channels just to down-vote?  What a boring life!

[Meirstein]

Go into the hard sciences and nobody gives a crap about political ideology.

[TrunkMonkey]

Conservatives believe in capitalist and free market ideals and hold to ethical moral views on social issues.