A Closer Look at Faculty Political Diversity

Liberal faculty members consistently outnumber conservative faculty members in faculty surveys, according to a review of faculty political diversity studies published by Heterodox Academy.

The report, released Wednesday, found that studies since 2012 range widely when it comes to the ratio of liberal to conservative faculty members, from two to one to 82 to one. Research shows variation across academic disciplines, as well; the humanities and social sciences tended to have larger shares of liberal professors compared to fields like business, economics, political science and STEM. The report also noted that significant minorities of faculty identified as moderate or unaffiliated with a political party.

“A narrow focus on ratios of only Democrats to Republicans (or liberals to conservatives) obscures the true distribution of political viewpoints in academia by overlooking faculty who are moderate or apolitical and may exacerbate perceptions of polarization within the academy,” the report read.

The analysis also found that existing research has limits, including low response rates, “imperfect measures” of political views and unmeasured nonresponse bias. But it concluded that the “most rigorous and comprehensive studies” find the lowest estimates of political imbalance.