![](\"http:\/\/www.peterlevine.ws\/images\/professors1.JPG\")
<\/p>\nIn September, I am supposed to give a talk that’s essentially about the relationship between academics and other citizens. Based on anecdotal experience, I assumed that professors tended to be secular, internationalist, and skeptical of capitalism, whereas the median American was religiously Christian, nationalist, and pro-market. That gap in opinion would affect debates about spending on higher education, academic freedom, and the role of scholarship.<\/p>\n
I wanted to go beyond personal impressions, if possible. The General Social Survey allows us to compare the political views of people by their profession. In order to include enough “post-secondary teachers” in the sample to get statistically meaningful results, I had to combine all years from 1980 to 2002. That is a misleading method if there were big changes in the professoriat over those 22 years. However, I still find the results interesting.<\/p>\n
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The first graph (above) shows the distribution of self-reported ideology among professors and everybody else. Non-professors formed a bell curve during the period 1980-2002, with the median at “moderate” and roughly symmetrical tails in either direction. Professors were far more liberal.<\/p>\n
This comparison could be misleading if professors defined<\/em> “liberal” differently from other people. However, a second graph provides direct evidence about opinion on issues.<\/p>\n Professors had about the same views of gun control as everyone else (presumably because most people favored it). On all other issues, professors were more liberal–although not by gigantic margins.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.peterlevine.ws\/images\/professors2.JPG\")
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