These kinds of threads tend to be self-congratulatory, and obviously the answer is "self-selection". But I'll bite. Most of the conservative professors I have k

These kinds of threads tend to be self-congratulatory, and obviously the answer is "self-selection". But I'll bite. Most of the conservative professors I have known in the Humanities have been in (military) history and classics, where they are likely drawn to classical or martial virtues. Economics professors are generally some variety of libertarian. Many Humanities professors are devout Christians. But I've never known a professor to be an intolerant, hard-core social conservative. And perhaps that's because the only personality trait that has a correlation with intelligence is "openness to experience". A certain kind of liberality is necessary in academia.