Higher values on the Stanton Foundation Free Speech Index indicate greater support for free speech

“Political Correctness” is a better predictor of a college student’s political ideology than socioeconomic status, religion, age, race, or gender.

In late 2017, more than 3,000 college students answered questions on their beliefs about free speech for The Gallup-Knight Foundation Survey.

The survey was performed just two months after popular conservative speaker Ben Shapiro’s visit to the University California-Berkley — home of the 1960’s Free Speech Movement. Some students were furious Shapiro was invited to speak, citing fears he was in some way connected to the racist alt-right. Shapiro’s visit cost the university close to $600,000 in security fees, which wasn’t enough to prevent extremist rioters from doing more than $100,000 in damage to the university.

The Gallup-Knight Foundation made their data available to the public, giving us an unusual opportunity to learn what college students really think about first amendment rights at a time when such beliefs appear to be controversial.

I used the data to answer three questions:

Is there a distinct faction of anti-speech extremists on college campuses? Would I find support for an underlying concept of “political correctness” among the beliefs students expressed? How do beliefs about free expression relate to political affiliation?

Most students are free-speech moderates

While students have diverse beliefs about speech, I found no evidence of discrete“clusters” in which we can categorize students solely based on those views. There is not a clear faction of students who oppose free speech.

When it comes to speech, student beliefs vary widely and most students have moderate views overall. Student views on speech — when measured by the Stanton Foundation Free Speech Index — follow the familiar “bell curve” distribution, shown below.

Higher values on the Stanton Foundation Free Speech Index indicate greater support for free speech

Political Correctness is real

To look for an underlying factor we might call “political correctness”, I transformed the data using the statistical method of “Principal Components Analysis” — the same method that was famously used to provide quantitative support for the concept general IQ.

I discovered evidence for the latent quality of “political correctness”, which accounts for about 23% of the variance in students’ beliefs about free speech.

The “political correctness” factor measures preference for protective inclusiveness in lieu of free expression. It is a measure of the extent to which students believe the value of promoting an inclusive society is more important than freedom of express. Students high in this metric favor “instituting speech codes” that could restrict “offensive or biased speech” on campus, removing first amendment protection of hate speech, and “disinviting [sic] speakers because some students are opposed to the invitation”.

I found additional evidence for a quality we might label “free speech moderation”. Students high in this metric support free speech in general — they believe hate speech should be legally protected, for example — but also want some regulation of speech on campus.

The statistical process also uncovered a third variable I like to call “free speech extremism”. It measures the extent to which a student expresses blanket support for free speech, including the use of speech to counter unwanted speakers — e.g. by protesting, shouting.

Political Correctness is… political

Although most Liberal students prefer the freedom to express themselves, nearly all of the students who broadly favor censorship identified themselves as being “very Liberal”. Likewise, most students who express relatively extreme support for free speech said they were “very Conservative”.

In fact, the trait “political correctness” is a better predictor of a college student’s political ideology than socioeconomic status, religion, age, gender, race, college sector, or college geographical region.

So do college students support free speech?

In short, yes.

Most college students want their schools to promote an inclusive environment. Even 70% Republican students expressed support for safe spaces on campus.

But most students also value free expression more generally: nearly 90% of survey respondents said protecting citizens’ free speech rights is “very important” or “extremely important”.

To put it one way, the average student wants to openly discuss new and challenging ideas without hearing racial slurs.

That’s not to say the climate on college campuses hasn’t changed. Speech regulations have become a politically divisive topic. Political Correctness — preference for top-down censorship of undesirable ideas —is now one of the best predictors of political orientation among college students in the United States.

Political Correctness is real, measurable, and important. For some students, an inclusive learning environment is more important than an open one. For others, the benefits of free expression outweigh its costs.

What do you think? Tell me in the comments!