Self-censorship far higher among conservative students
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill students across the political spectrum want to hear more conservative speakers on the left-dominated campus.
Thatâs among the surprising findings from a survey by three UNC professors regarding undergraduate experiences with freedom of expression on the flagship campus.
With the topics of âfree expression and constructive dialogueâ hotly discussed across the country, the researchers âwanted to better understand these issues at our own institutionâ and âintroduce new information into the national conversation,â they wrote on the frequently asked questions page.
Other findings echo previous research on self-expression among students: that self-identified conservatives inhibit their expression more than self-identified liberals and moderates, to protect both their grades and their social status.
This is despite half of conservative students saying they believe their professors welcome the expression of different viewpoints in the classroom. Liberals also support âblocking a speaker they disagree withâ at far higher rates than do conservatives and moderates.
The director of the Bipartisan Policy Centerâs Campus Free Expression Project praised the findings in a phone interview with The College Fix.
âWe know [that] the 2020 election campaign is going to be really a difficult one,â Jacqueline Merrill said. The study shows that âstudents from all across the spectrums want more chances to see [people] from across the spectrum possess their ideas in dialogue with one another and model that respectful debate for students as well.â
She was pleased to see UNC researchers not only do such a survey but make it public. One finding on the effect of professors on studentsâ views âundercutsâ the idea that âfaculty can make the classrooms places of indoctrination,â Merrill said.
One group who hasnât responded to the survey, at least that The Fix could find: UNC administrators. None is mentioned in The Daily Tar Heel coverage of the report, for example.
Conservatives worry ‘several’ times or ‘most weeks’ about blowback
Jennifer Larson, Mark McNeily and Timothy Ryan started the survey last spring and published a report earlier this month.
The survey was open to all undergraduates at UNC, with nearly 1,100 completing the entirety of the survey. The researchers also conducted focus groups with three politically active clubs, two liberal and one conservative, with âapproximatelyâ 18 students participating.
The researchers, who come from the English, business and political science departments, have high hopes for the data they published. âOur findings will ideally generate discussion among administration, faculty, students, media, and interested members of the public,â they wrote on the FAQ page.
The report has 12 âprincipal findings,â with individual responses labeled under the categories of self-identified conservative, moderate or liberal to make the data easier to understand.
A plurality of students (48 percent) has not changed their political opinions since coming to UNC, while 31 percent became more liberal and 16 percent more conservative. The survey asked them to rank their current views on a seven-point ideological scale and recall their leanings âwhen you first came to UNC.â
The second finding deals with reactions to free expression in the classroom. The researchers studied how polarized classes are when politics is discussed, how often professors reveal their biases and how strongly do they try to convince students to adopt their opinions, and how often open debate occurs during class.
They assessed âwhere and with what frequency political conversations happen,â given that studies of professors find they lean left âin the vast majority of academic disciplines,â at UNC and in general. âAnd to the extent political conversations arise at UNC, are they concentrated in certain academic areas, or are they more ubiquitous?â
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Larson, McNeily and Ryan concluded that âinstructors generally exercise restraint in revealing their political viewsâ and âpolitically-focused class discussions are not ubiquitous or inescapable.â This counters âthe notion that UNC faculty pervasively attempt to socialize their students into particular viewpoints.â
While a majority of both liberals (59 percent) and conservatives (51 percent) believe their instructors equally supported discussion from either ideological perspective, Peter Bonilla of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education pointed to problems further in the data.
The concern over âhow faculty would respond to their sharing their political opinionsâ is ânotably higher in conservatives,â he wrote in a blog post. Four times as many conservatives (50 percent) as liberals (12.5 percent) have âsome degree of concernâ that their views will cause their professors to âlower their opinion of them.â
Self-censorship âcut[s] across ideologiesâ but is far worse among conservatives, Bonilla noted. About two in three conservatives say theyâve censored themselves at least once, compared to about one in four liberals.
Across their âentire timeâ on campus, 31 percent of conservatives say they have worried âseveralâ times or âmost weeksâ that expressing their views will result in a lower grade and social ostracization in person and on social media. Only 1.5 percent of liberals agreed.
âA substantial percentage of respondents not only indicate that they self-censor, but that they do so multiple times in a single class,â the researchers wrote.
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Moderates really, really want to hear more conservative speakers
Students across the ideological spectrum also reported commonly hearing âinappropriate commentsâ about conservatives, ranging from 57 percent of liberals to 82 percent of conservatives – the highest of any subgroup measured.
This suggests âUNC community members have not internalized norms of respect and civility toward conservatives to the same extent they have toward other groups,â the researchers wrote.
Liberals are far more likely than conservatives to seek âsocial distanceâ from those with whom they disagree politically, with liberals least willing to date a member of an âoutgroupâ (25 percent) and most willing to be friends with them (63 percent).
Conservative responses are 16 to 30 percentage points higher for each social-distance question, with even a majority agreeing to date a member of an outgroup.
âWhile many students recognize intellectual diversityâs value and are willing to include their ideological opposites in their personal and academic life, many others seek social distance,â the report said.
The numbers are closer when asked whether political outgroups are important to UNCâs campus community: 86 percent of conservatives and 72.5 percent of liberals agree.
MORE: Self-censorship and science denialism on campus
The most alarming result from the report may be ow many undergraduates support blocking speakers with whom they disagree: more than one in four.
At 19.2 percent, liberals are six times more likely than conservatives or moderates to support âcreat[ing] an obstructionâ so a speaker canât speak. Nearly as many (18.7 percent) would âform a picket lineâ to block people from getting into an event with such a speaker. FIREâs Bonilla noted there was far less divergence on nondisruptive responses, such as writing op-eds.
The researchers found the local survey on this subject mirrored national findings, with Americans supporting free expression and tolerance in the abstract but not in specific incidents.
Despite this heightened willingness to shut down visiting speakers and keep away their audience, more liberals believe there are âtoo fewâ opportunities to hear conservative speakers (37 percent) than to hear liberal speakers (21.5 percent).
Most moderates want to hear more conservative speakers (63 percent), and they closely agree with conservatives on whether they hear too few liberal perspectives (10.4 and 9.9 percent).
âWe find broad support for increasing campus opportunities to engage in constructive dialogueâespecially opportunities that increase opportunities to hear conservative perspectives,â the researchers wrote in one of the reportâs more optimistic findings on freedom of expression.
Support free expression – unless ‘someone hurts someone elseâs feelings’
Merrill of the Bipartisan Policy Center told The Fix she was most interested by the reportâs recommendations to improve support for free expression and constructive dialogue.
Giving âstudents, faculty, and staff more opportunities to hear external speakers presenting ideas from across the political, social and cultural spectrumâ is crucial considering this is an election year, she said.
Merrill shared her experience from a panel discussion on freedom of expression at Duke University. While students generally support freedom of expression, they are also âworried about the butâ and âwhat if someone hurts someone elseâs feelings, or says something offensive or more than offensive ⌠something vile or hateful,â she told The Fix:
Thatâs the real challenge for colleges and university leaders, whether theyâre staff, faculty, or administrators or presidents ⌠to help students navigate how is it that we can have a campus culture that is wide open to expressionâeven expression others are going to find difficult or offensiveâwhile also building a campus culture that is welcoming and diverse.
Jenna Robinson, president of the North Carolina-based Martin Center for Academic Renewal, agreed that the report recommendations âare concrete steps that universities and faculty members can take without being overly prescriptive in ways to encourage viewpoint diversity.â
She told The Fix in a phone call that the report is a âgreat addition to the literature we already have on the topic, and Iâm really glad to see it come out of UNC.â
MORE: College rejects free-speech principles to protect ‘dignitary safety’ of students
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