19% college students support the use of violence to silence dissent.

A fifth of college students say it’s acceptable to use violence to keep a controversial speaker from appearing at their school – and more than half say it’s okay to shout down the speaker so he can’t be heard, a new Brookings Institute survey shows.

Brookings Senior Fellow John Villasenor, who conducted the free-speech survey of 1,500 undergraduate students nationwide at four-year colleges, says his goal was to measure student tolerance of offensive, opposing views:

"One way to examine tolerance to offensive speech is to explore views on what actions students deem permissible to prevent it from occurring. The next two questions are based on the following scenario: "A public university invites a very controversial speaker to an on-campus event. The speaker is known for making offensive and hurtful statements."

Asked if it is acceptable for a student group opposed to the speaker to use violence to prevent him from speaking, 19% said it was, while 81% disapproved of the use of student violence. Three times as many males (30%) as females (10%) condoned the use of violence.

Source: Brookings Institute

Villasenor says that, while 19% may seem “low,” it’s actually very troubling - given that the question is about the use of violence:

“First, the fraction of students who view the use of violence as acceptable is extremely high. While percentages in the high teens and 20s are “low” relative to what they could be, it’s important to remember that this question is asking about the acceptability of committing violence in order to silence speech. Any number significantly above zero is concerning. The gender difference in the responses is also notable.”

The survey also shows that more than half of college students approve of shouting down an objectionable speaker to prevent him from being heard. Here, 51% called the behavior “acceptable,” while 49% said it is not.

Source: Brookings Institute

In a separate line of questioning, the survey found that more undergraduates said the First Amendment does not protect “hate speech” than knew it does (39%). Another 16% said they didn’t know whether or not it is protected by the First Amendment.