2008 Woodie Awards
Researchers find liberals more likely to pursue doctorate, become professors
Teresa Lostroh
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: News
Since the 1950s, people have assumed professors are liberal.
Or so claims Solon Simmons, a professor at George Mason University, whose recent study supports this theory.
He concluded that 90 percent of professors identify as either being liberal or moderate.
Professors' political ideologies has long been a popular subject for debate, but only recently has empirical research been conducted to answer the left-leaning controversy.
In a separate report, Matthew Woessner, a professor at Penn State Harrisburg, and his wife, Elizabethtown College professor April Kelly-Woessner, try to supply some answers.
The duo published their report "Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don't Get Doctorates" in late 2007, after analyzing the results of a set of surveys developed by the University of California, Los Angeles' Higher Education Research Institute.
The HERI surveys assessed the opinions of 15,569 seniors from 149 American colleges regarding their educational experience, career aspirations, political views and other criteria.
The couple's analysis of HERI's work found people's values and priorities are probably the most important factors in whether they'll pursue a doctoral degree.
Their findings disproved the theory that discrimination of conservatives in scholarly fields discourages those on the political right from becoming professors. It also negated the idea that liberals' superior intelligence steers them toward academia.
But it did report that liberals do aim to earn doctoral degrees more often than their political opposites: twice as often.
Matthew Woessner said this can be attributed to conservatives' desire to be financially stable and raise a family. They also tend to pursue majors relating to practical fields such as accounting, rather than abstract areas that may lead to doctoral degrees such as humanities.
Woessner said about there is a lack of a single concrete reason for many conservatives' disinterest in becoming a professor.
"Much mystery remains" Woessner said. "What we have are the first indicators."
But maybe more important than understanding why liberals dominate the academic realm, is knowing whether left-leaning professors negatively influence their conservative or moderate students.
John Hibbing, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said he believes UNL is a university where liberals outnumber conservatives, but he doesn't see it as an issue as long as professors don't push their beliefs on students.
Hibbing tested his own ability to refrain from promoting a partisan agenda in class by asking his introductory political science students to identify his political affiliation at the end of the semester - about half the students guessed correctly.
"As long as students have examined their own beliefs, I'm happy with that," Hibbing said. "I would hope they don't end up thinking the same way I do."
Vicki Miller, the research communications coordinator for UNL's office of research, doesn't know the political ideologies of her colleagues, and she doesn't care to.
"I couldn't tell you if the folks in our office who have Ph.D.'s are 'liberal' or 'conservative,'" Miller said. "It's not part of what we need to know to work together as professionals in our office."
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com
Or so claims Solon Simmons, a professor at George Mason University, whose recent study supports this theory.
He concluded that 90 percent of professors identify as either being liberal or moderate.
Professors' political ideologies has long been a popular subject for debate, but only recently has empirical research been conducted to answer the left-leaning controversy.
In a separate report, Matthew Woessner, a professor at Penn State Harrisburg, and his wife, Elizabethtown College professor April Kelly-Woessner, try to supply some answers.
The duo published their report "Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don't Get Doctorates" in late 2007, after analyzing the results of a set of surveys developed by the University of California, Los Angeles' Higher Education Research Institute.
The HERI surveys assessed the opinions of 15,569 seniors from 149 American colleges regarding their educational experience, career aspirations, political views and other criteria.
The couple's analysis of HERI's work found people's values and priorities are probably the most important factors in whether they'll pursue a doctoral degree.
Their findings disproved the theory that discrimination of conservatives in scholarly fields discourages those on the political right from becoming professors. It also negated the idea that liberals' superior intelligence steers them toward academia.
But it did report that liberals do aim to earn doctoral degrees more often than their political opposites: twice as often.
Matthew Woessner said this can be attributed to conservatives' desire to be financially stable and raise a family. They also tend to pursue majors relating to practical fields such as accounting, rather than abstract areas that may lead to doctoral degrees such as humanities.
Woessner said about there is a lack of a single concrete reason for many conservatives' disinterest in becoming a professor.
"Much mystery remains" Woessner said. "What we have are the first indicators."
But maybe more important than understanding why liberals dominate the academic realm, is knowing whether left-leaning professors negatively influence their conservative or moderate students.
John Hibbing, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said he believes UNL is a university where liberals outnumber conservatives, but he doesn't see it as an issue as long as professors don't push their beliefs on students.
Hibbing tested his own ability to refrain from promoting a partisan agenda in class by asking his introductory political science students to identify his political affiliation at the end of the semester - about half the students guessed correctly.
"As long as students have examined their own beliefs, I'm happy with that," Hibbing said. "I would hope they don't end up thinking the same way I do."
Vicki Miller, the research communications coordinator for UNL's office of research, doesn't know the political ideologies of her colleagues, and she doesn't care to.
"I couldn't tell you if the folks in our office who have Ph.D.'s are 'liberal' or 'conservative,'" Miller said. "It's not part of what we need to know to work together as professionals in our office."
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 4
Wil Hass
posted 2/29/08 @ 8:19 AM CST
Almost all professors I have ever met have also been literate, intelligent and well-informed (in at least some areas). And many of them have constantly reminded me that correlation doesn't imply causation. (Continued…)
T-bone
posted 2/29/08 @ 9:50 AM CST
Maybe liberals are just "smarter" than conservatives :)?
In all seriousness, I applaud the author of this article for writing a factual, non-biased account of an issue that can be a political "hot-button" in the academic world. (Continued…)
Troy Wiegand
posted 2/29/08 @ 10:08 AM CST
I am curious about his data and would like to see how it parses out when the field of study is analyzed. It has been my completely non-scientific experience that the humanities tend to be far more liberal than average while the sciences and engineering tend to be more conservative. (Continued…)
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