Study: Professors' politics have little effect on students' views

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Associated Press

Conservatives complain that college professors lean left when it comes to politics - and the data mostly show that's true. But new research suggests the personal politics of academics have little effect on what their students think.

The research, to be published later this year in the journal PS: Political Science and Politics, analyzes separate surveys on the attitudes of about 6,800 students at 38 universities and how they changed between freshman and senior year. Then it examines whether those results are affected by the political attitudes of the faculty at their particular schools.

The short answer is no, according to researchers Gordon Hewitt of Hamilton College (an active Democrat) and Mack Mariani of Xavier University (who has worked for Republicans).

It's true that schools with more liberal faculty tended to attract more liberal students. But on the question of how students' views evolved, there was little impact, Hewitt said in a telephone interview Thursday.

About 60 percent of students didn't change their political outlooks much during college. Those that did moved slightly to the left, but the change mirrored that of 18-to-24 year-olds generally. There was no apparent boost from attending a school with a particularly liberal faculty.

The broader debate is an extraordinarily contentious one. Research, including recent work by Daniel Klein of George Mason University, confirms what anyone who hangs out on most college campuses could tell you - academics are generally more liberal than the overall population, particularly at elite institutions, and in the humanities and social sciences.

The phenomenon at elite schools attracts the most attention. According to the Center for Responsive Politics' Web site OpenSecrets.org, employees of Harvard University and their family members have contributed a combined $363,000 to the Democratic presidential campaigns of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has received under $10,000.

Explanations for academia's political tilt vary. Conservatives tend to blame discrimination and indoctrination, saying academic culture purges out views it doesn't like. Others contend it's self-selection - that liberals have personality traits that make them more likely to go into academia.

The research doesn't explain why students resist imitating their professors' views.

"It could be the faculty in general take their profession seriously, and that even though they identify themselves as politically liberal, they're very professionally oriented and their pedagogy does not reflect these biases," Hewitt said. Or, maybe faculty "are in the classroom trying to indoctrinate (students) with their views, and the students don't take the bait," he said.

There's another possibility, too - students just don't listen to what their professors have to say.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/032...ics0327-ON.html

[DeadPoolX 9]

I have wondered about this. I've had professors who were on both ends of the spectrum, although admittedly, many more were liberal than conservative. However, I can't recall a single professor ever being truly successful in changing my point-of-view. I either agreed, disagreed, or landed somewhere in the middle.

As far as I'm concerned, any professor who's extremely outspoken about his or her politics will probably end up pissing off his or her students. People come to college to learn (and experience new things), but not to be preached at about politics. It's easy enough to get that online or through the TV and radio without tuition fees.

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

It only effects their grades if they don't tow the professor's party line.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I have wondered about this. I've had professors who were on both ends of the spectrum, although admittedly, many more were liberal than conservative. However, I can't recall a single professor ever being truly successful in changing my point-of-view. I either agreed, disagreed, or landed somewhere in the middle.

As far as I'm concerned, any professor who's extremely outspoken about his or her politics will probably end up pissing off his or her students. People come to college to learn (and experience new things), but not to be preached at about politics. It's easy enough to get that online or through the TV and radio without tuition fees.

Yep. Anyone who's a parent to a teenager knows just how little influence you have over their views as they reach adulthood. Being rebellious is a natural process of defining oneself separate from their primary source of authority...the parents. Indoctrination only works on children and the weak minded.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'm not particularly surprised, given that degrees are supposed to be interactive. You are supposed to do your own reading and research after all.

It only effects their grades if they don't tow the professor's party line.

Depends on the professor. That wasn't an experience I had.

[Jenn! 918]

I can't recall a single professor whose political leanings I was even aware of.

[Peikko 1,575]

Agreed, nor mine. All you had to do was present a coherent arguement supported by evidence and you got the grade, didn't matter what your view was.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

It only effects their grades if they don't tow the professor's party line.

I never experience that. In spite of people trying to pigeon hole people's political leanings into two distinct categories, most people's opinions and views on issues vary widely and actually the core principal of liberalism espouse that one thinks for them self vs. dogma.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I can't recall a single professor whose political leanings I was even aware of.

That's a good point. I'm also wondering how a political bias can even be added to some subjects...

[Peikko 1,575]

The only overtly biased professor I encountered was in political studies - which isn't really surprising I guess.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I had one in an English Literature class who objected to certain interpretations of set texts, but that wasn't particularly "political"

[Alex+R 0]

I can't recall a single professor whose political leanings I was even aware of.

That's a good point. I'm also wondering how a political bias can even be added to some subjects...

Even when it clearly can, I found most professors didn't make their politics known. Some fields (like ####### studies or feminist theory) are inherently liberal, but those conservatives who disagree with their existence are inherently fcukwits.

I don't think people who make that argument have gone to college, honestly. They'd never say that otherwise.

[funkyab 0]

i think there would be a HUGE difference if the professor/student relationship was at a more general undergrad level or at the graduate/post grad level where the professor and student are REALLY working together. I speak from experience. I could give a sh*t what my undergrad professors thought but when spending so much time at the grad/post grad stages, the study into ideology goes much deeper.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I can't recall a single professor whose political leanings I was even aware of.

That's a good point. I'm also wondering how a political bias can even be added to some subjects...

Even when it clearly can, I found most professors didn't make their politics known. Some fields (like ####### studies or feminist theory) are inherently liberal, but those conservatives who disagree with their existence are inherently fcukwits.

I don't think people who make that argument have gone to college, honestly. They'd never say that otherwise.

Or perhaps the "political bias" manifests itself in specific areas - like rejection of Intelligent Design and promoting global warming science.

But yes - I think you're right.

[Alex+R 0]

I worked really closely with several of my professors in undergrad. My thesis advisor, my theory professor, my voice teacher, my South Asian Studies advisor, an anthropology professor, three professors I worked for, two who trained me to be a writing fellow... I never felt my questioning was unwelcome, and I never felt pressured to think a certain way (except carefully).