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Study results demonstrated that the grades after 4 years for conservative students were not lower than for liberal students. There is a material difference betw
by istorical 7y ago
Study results demonstrated that the grades after 4 years for conservative students were not lower than for liberal students. There is a material difference between proving the former and proving that conservative students aren't discriminated against for espousing conservative ideas.
Their data did not capture whether these conservative students kept their ideas to themselves and adopted the socially acceptable positions and beliefs they would assume their professors were seeking in order to get the grades. Why rock the boat when a college degree is an economic instrument and not some kind of political debate?
"Over the phone, Woessner stresses that, in the end, he and his co-authors had 'to engage in speculation, trying to map our possible explanation ranging from discrimination to skills to interests. [Conservative students] may be not as engaged' when it comes to the humanities, whereas 'liberal students are much less happy with their math classes.'"
Nonetheless interesting study, but headline writers once again drawing conclusions beyond the scope of a study. Yay social science journalism. We'll all continue on agreeing with headlines that conform to our echo chambers and dismissing out of hand those that do not, regardless of what the actual study truly demonstrated. Let's just infer explanations that makes sense to us and interpret our findings the way that suits our agenda.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- thatoneuser 7y ago"Let's just infer explanations that makes sense to us and interpret our findings the way that suits our agenda." Hah, this very much seems to be the original problem that leads to universities leaning only one direction. I wouldn't say it's a hard 'only leaning against conservative thought', as I've seen academic bias go a lot of directions. But I had many experiences where a prof or curriculum was clearly saying they were right because of their perspective and they wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe this is the product of a world with an abundance of information. You can find evidence to support basically anything (ie fake moon landing.) If you aren't willing to deliberately go outside your knowledge bubble and tackle challenging counter ideas, you're inevitably going to end up with false beliefs.