Conservative students are more likely than their liberal counterparts to self-censor their political opinions at University of North Carolina (UNC) campuses. A survey of students conducted by professors determined that 68 percent of conservative students worry about sharing their political opinions, as compared to only 31 percent of leftist students.
Four University of North Carolina professors have authored a study titled, “Free Expression and Constructive Dialogue in the University of North Carolina System” to “better understand their experiences related to free expression and constructive dialogue.”
The new study on free expression builds on a study the professors conducted at UNC Chapel Hill in 2019, which concluded that “students who identify as conservative face distinctive challenges” and “campuses do not consistently achieve an atmosphere that promotes free expression,” among other things.
“Self-identified conservatives express free-expression-related concerns at a far higher rate than self-identified liberals,” the authors wrote in their executive summary, adding that liberal students have “stronger preferences for socializing” than their conservative peers.
“We also find that self-identified liberal students have stronger preferences for socializing and taking classes with their ingroup than self-identified conservatives do,” the professors wrote.
UNC-Chapel Hill professors Timothy J. Ryan, Jennifer Larson, and Mark McNeilly, and UNC-Greensboro professor Andrew M. Engelhardt surveyed students from eight UNC campuses.
When asked if they worry about other students’ opinions, 68 percent of conservatives said yes, while 31 percent of leftists said yes. When asked if they worry about professors’ opinions, 42 percent of conservatives said yes, while only 12 percent of leftists said yes.
The study also found that 32 percent of conservative students worry about their grades, compared to just 7 percent of leftists students who worry about their grades.
The professors also noted that a “significant number of students have concerns about stating their sincere political views in class and have self-censored because they were concerned about the potential reactions.”
They added that they “find racial issues to be the topic that elicits the most student discomfort,” but noted that they “find no evidence that the views students hold back run afoul of university policies against harassment or discrimination.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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