The political “left” dominates a number of institutions, including, most famously, Hollywood entertainment and up-market journalism. But perhaps even more striking is the heavily “liberal-progressive” bent observed in many academic fields, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, far in excess of the leftist percentage in America at large.
And this certainly deserves an explanation.
Could it be the result of bias and discrimination?
It’s long been fun to listen to academics defend their heavily leftist cut of the higher ed pie using arguments that have nothing to do with bias. Why “fun”? Because similar arguments trotted out in other fields receive nothing but scorn from academics.
Now there’s a study showing that social psychologists, at least, self-admit to an anti-conservative bias in grading papers, awarding grant proposals, inviting symposium speakers, and accepting job applicants. And here’s the kicker: “The more liberal the survey respondents identified as being, the more likely they were to say that they would discriminate.”
Those who are already sharpening their ad hominem retorts should note that the study was not conducted by folks on “the right.” Co-author Yoel Inbar described himself to Inside Higher Ed as “‘a pretty doctrinaire liberal,’ who volunteered for the Obama campaign in 2008 and who votes Democrat. His co-author, Joris Lammers of Tilburg, is to Inbar’s left, he said.”
The most interesting aspect of bias uncovered in the study, however, is that interviewed academics estimated that their colleagues were twice as likely as themselves to discriminate on ideological grounds.
The “other guy” is always worse than oneself.
Which is where bias and prejudice begin, perhaps.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
11 replies on “The Left Discriminates”
I think this undeserved reputation academics and scientists have, that they are a special breed of humans who are without metaphysical and political commitments, is vanishing forever. But let’s watch and see.
[…] Those who are already sharpening their ad hominem retorts should note that the study was not conducted by folks on “the right.” Co-author Yoel Inbar described himself to Inside Higher Ed as “‘a pretty doctrinaire liberal,’ who volunteered for the Obama campaign in 2008 and who votes Democrat. His co-author, Joris Lammers of Tilburg, is to Inbar’s left, he said.”Source: thisiscommonsense.com […]
Despite being schooled in the social sciences along with a business acumen, I found the decidedly refreshing love of liberty. Once you are unchained, it is impossible to return to the fetters. Freedom is popular!
Paul:
Great article!
It’s been (thankfully) several decades since I suffered through my undergrad years. I was a chemistry major, so endured the hallowed halls of the liberal arts for only the minimum number of courses necessary to get my degree.
Even so, and even though shy of 20 years old (started college at 16), I was sickened by the self worship of these pontificating, academic buffoons, so proud of their PhD’s, so full of opinions, so full of themselves, so full of crap.
Most were devoid of anything resembling facts or logical thought; but they never let the lack of objective information get in the way of voicing their usually very LOUD opinions — “Often wrong, but never in doubt” is an apt description.
I’ve a theory that seems contrary to most (and certainly their own) about why these oafs end up in academia: They are not there because they are brilliant, deep-thinking, high-minded culture changers; they are there because they were/are too stupid and/or lazy to do anything worthwhile with their lives other than seek a tenured position in their beloved ivory towers, safe to pursue their navel-gazing with other pointy heads sharing an identical worldview.
I worked my tail off through undergrad (in the early 70’s) as a pre-dental student, listening to the snickers of my liberal arts cohorts as I studied while they partied, smoked pot, got their girlfriends pregnant, and streaked around the campus on the weekends. They got straight A’s while I struggled for B’s and a few C’s. (They were convinced it was due to my stupidity — it couldn’t possibly be because my courses were tougher, could it?)
Dental school was a four-year blur of 80 – 90 hour weeks, but I loved it and graduated first in my class. I entered the military after graduation (good thing I hadn’t kept up with my old liberal arts classmates, they’d have staged a sit-in on my front lawn over that!), went back to specialize in orthodontics and never looked back.
After over twenty years in private practice, it is hard to not feel a bit smug about making the right (for me, at least) life choices. I still work 50 – 60 hour weeks, but love being a health professional who actually contributes something worthwhile to my fellow beings; and they in turn have made me a proud member of the “One Percent” club. I employ nine people currently, pay my taxes, pay my bills, don’t look to anybody else to bail me out when I screw up, go to church regularly, give over 10% to charity, and vote for the most fiscally conservative candidate, regardless of party affiliation (though that is admittedly usually a Republican).
The vast majority of my old “pals” who got some near-worthless piece of parchment in the liberal arts were unable to find meaningful employment in any field remotely related to the Bachelors “degree” they received. Ditto for those who wasted two more years of their lives (and their parents’ money!) getting a Masters degree.
Only those who spent an additional few years getting their PhD’s managed to stumble upon a paycheck-paying job. The ultimate price they paid was selling their souls to liberl academia, and being banished forever from reality.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot — “Mr. Obama, you are dead wrong: I most certainly DID build that; and with the taxes I pay (income, gas, and property), I ALSO built those damned roads and bridges you’re so proud of!”
You have to go all the way back to the upheaval of the mid-late ‘60s to understand how this situation came about. At that time many young men answered their nation’s call, and went off to an unpopular war. Others opposed that war, and wanted, instead, to smoke dope and experience free-love. They went into academia to avoid military service. They sought to justify their life decisions to every student passing through their classes. The college professors of today are the students of that period.
Bill, you not only paid for it, but your taxes would have only have had to have been at only 27% in order to cover 100% of the cost of the infrastructure and the military defense of that infrastructure. The difference between that 27% and the 35 to 39% that that you have been paying has been flushed on turtle tunnels, Vegas parties, giveaways to Kenya snd other countries that vote against us at the UN, duplicate expenditures that are never used, a multiplicity of unconstitutional acitvities and events that were never among the 17 enumerated duties of the federal (now national) government.
You paid for it and are due a refund for what the govnernment wasted and squandered and has borrowed in the name of our children and which it will pay back even if it has to come and get it at gunpoint.
Turns out that those who opposed the Vietnam war were right. It did nothing but kill 58,000+ Americans and untold Vietnamese. The same will be true of Bushy Wushy’s Iraq war which has resulted in thousands of U.S. casualties along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths. Same with Afghanistan.
But the REPUBLIKOOKS want more wars – as long as their sons and daughters don’t have to serve.
Bring back the draft and the wars of preemption will end.
Jatra4, Little “r” rebuplicans do NOT want more wars or more empire, not in Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran, etc. If you think otherwise, then you are severly mistaken and need other sources of information than Huffpo. Need to read up on Jefferson, sir. And those folks that are mostly doing the fighting, are mostly republican who enlisted to defend and be proud of our country, not to go shagging after every little country that has an out of control government while the administration is taxing us to death to cover the costs.
Less government and power to the people is the goal.
People voting at the local level for the laws that affect themsleves, not being run by a distant, central, more and more corupt oligarchy.
Government is the problem. More government isn’t the solution.
corrupt
JATR4–
VIETNAM WAS STARTED ( AND SCREWED UP) BY JFK- WHEN HE HAD THE DIEM’S KILELD.
LBJ EXPANDED IT.
As for Iraq & Afghanistan– THE CONGRESS, INCLUDING SENATORS BARRACK HUSSEIN OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON & JOHN KERRY VOTED FOR THE FIGHTING.
One thing is certain.… the public must act to dissemble the education establishment, the education union, and the despicable system of tenure. No one, NO ONE, should have a guaranteed & protected job! Once exposed to the real world, many opinions would moderate!