Ideology and Religion in Students’ Attitudes Toward Economically and Socially Conservative Professors

Abstract

Many instructors of political science wrestle with the question of whether to reveal their political ideology to their students and recent polarization in the United States intensifies those concerns. Prior research suggests that liberal and moderate students are wary of taking a course with a conservative professor, but do students react to economically conservative professors the same as they do socially conservative professors? We conducted an online survey experiment of current students at two public universities in the southern United States to test whether a reputation for expressing conservative opinions on either economic or social issues affected a professor’s appeal to students. Participants split along ideological lines on both professor profiles, but greater skepticism was directed at the socially conservative professor. Preference for a socially conservative professor was greatest among more religious students.

Keywords:

• Randomized experiment
• Undergraduate education
• Political socialization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 As reported in Table 1, the sample from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte included more liberals. We used the opportunity presented by this difference to assess whether the sites differed in how partisans responded to treatments. We found no significant differences, most likely because despite differences in the samples, the campus cultures are not very different in terms of political activism. Comparing different universities with contrasting political cultures would be an interesting test of how environment shifts students’ preferences, but it is beyond the scope of this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jason Giersch

Jason Giersch, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he teaches courses in American politics, research methods, education policy, and politics and film. His research explores education politics and policy and political behavior. His work is published in The Journal of Politics, Educational Policy, and American Educational Research Journal.

Scott Liebertz

Scott Liebertz, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Public Administration at the University of South Alabama. His research interests include political behavior, democratization, and Latin American politics. His work is published in Justice Quarterly, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Politics and Religion, and other journals.