A new study charting the political preferences of social science professors on America’s most prestigious college campus demonstrates that the professors are politically liberal in staggering numbers.
The study, published in September at the website Econ Journal Watch, shows that the ratio of Democratic professors to Republican professors is 11.5 to 1 — meaning that, for every dozen faculty members, there is not quite a single GOP supporter in the bunch.
The trio of researchers who conducted the study for the peer-reviewed academic journal collected the names of 7,243 professors in the departments of economics, history, law, psychology and journalism and communications at 40 prominent American colleges and universities. Out of that total, the researchers were able to determine the voter registration status of 3,937 professors — as it pertains to a political party.
Exactly 3,623 of the faculty members under review were — and presumably are — registered Democrats. Just 314 were registered Republicans.
Republicans did best among economics professors, where the ratio of Democrats to Republicans came out to 4.5 to 1.
History professors are the most liberal, according to the study. In America’s history departments, Democratic-affiliated professors outnumber Republican ones by an astounding ratio of 33.5 to 1.
The ratio of Democrats to Republicans in journalism and communications departments is 20 to 1, the study results show. In psychology departments, the ratio is 17.4 to 1. In law schools, the ratio is 8.6 to 1.
Overall, female professors in the social sciences fields under view are Democrats by a ratio of 24.8 to 1. The Democrat-to-Republican ratio among male professors in the same fields is 9 to 1.
The ratio of professors who are registered Democrats compared to registered Republican professors has become more lopsided since 2004, the study notes.
The study focuses on professors at 40 of the 60 highest-ranked colleges and universities in the United States, as rated by U.S. News & World Report.
The data is limited to 30 states because because voter registration information private in some states.
Inside Higher Ed took a deep dive into the study’s numbers and found that Brown University, a fancypants Ivy League school, is the most monolithically liberal of the 40 schools included in the data. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the five departments by a whopping ratio of 60 to 1.
Boston University (40:1), Johns Hopkins University (35:1), the University of Rochester (35:1) and Northeastern University (33:1) are also notorious hothouses of Democratic professors, according to the study.
Pepperdine University, a Church of Christ-affiliated bastion in Malibu, California, has the lowest ratio of registered Democrats to registered Republicans in the five social science fields (1.2:1).
The next lowest ratio — 3.1:1 — is at Case Western Reserve University. (RELATED: Fancypants College In Cleveland Offers SAFE SPACE For Students Traumatized By Republican Convention)
Next lowest are Ohio State University (3.2:1), Pennsylvania State University (6:1) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (6:1).
The dearth of Republican professors is worst in New England and the Northeast, according to the study’s findings.
The conclusion that New England is a hub of leftist professors — while not exactly earth-shattering — aligns with data collected earlier this year by politics professor Samuel J. Abrams — a lone voice of conservatism (perhaps even the lone voice) at notably liberal Sarah Lawrence College. (RELATED: Liberal Professors Swamp Conservatives 28-TO-1 On New England College Campuses)
The authors of the study — George Mason University economics professor Daniel Klein, Brooklyn College business professor Mitchell Langbert and private sector developer Anthony J. Quain — estimate that humanities and social science professors at America’s prestigious colleges and universities will vote for Democrats in the 2012 election by a ratio of about 10 to 1.
“People interested in ideological diversity or concerned about the errors of leftist outlooks — including students, parents, donors and taxpayers — might find our results deeply troubling,” they observe.
“Democrats are, often without being very self-aware about it, more deeply enmeshed in bents and mentalities that spell statism than are Republicans.”
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