Nearly two thirds of college students in the United States are reluctant to discuss at least one of a sample of key topics, including politics, religion, race, sexual orientation, and gender.
This emerges from the results of the 2021 Campus Expression Survey (CES) of the Heterodox Academy, an American organisation working towards promoting ‘viewpoint diversity’ in institutions of higher learning.
The CES ‘measures the extent to which students feel comfortable or reluctant discussing various topics on their campuses’.
Based on data collected from 1 495 full-time students across the US (identified by region, race and gender) the report concluded that 60% of college students were reluctant to discuss at least one of the following topics: politics, religion, race, sexual orientation, and gender.
Students were most reluctant to discuss politics (39%), followed by religion (31.8%), and race (27.5%). The survey found that neither geographic location, academic area of study, family income, nor age played any significant role in the results.
It was revealed, however, that students who identify as Republican or Independent were more likely than Democrats to self-censor, likewise with Asian and white students compared to other races.
When asked, 88% of respondents agreed that colleges should encourage students and professors ‘to interact respectfully with people whose beliefs differ from their own’, however, 63% agreed that the college climate prevented people from saying things that they believe.
One particularly striking result is that 56% of students cited concern that ‘peers would make critical comments to others after class’, as a reason for their reluctance to discuss certain topics, despite most students reporting that they would not engage in such critical actions.
‘In fact, 64% of students said, “I would ask questions about their opinion so I can understand it better,” in response to an opinion with which they disagreed.’
This prompted the authors to suggest that ‘(negative) consequences for speaking out about controversial topics might be more imagined than real’.
The full report can be found at https://heterodoxacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CES-Report-2022-FINAL.pdf.