In the Ivory Tower: Liberals focus on student emotional well-being and social justice with a concomitant de-emphasis on academic rigor and knowledge advancement

Geher, G., Jewell, O., Holler, R., Planke, J., Betancourt, K., Baroni, A., Di Santo, J., Gleason, M., & Eisenberg, J. (2020). Politics and Academic Values in Higher Education: Just How Much Does Political Orientation Drive the Values of the Ivory Tower? Unpublished Manuscript. Nov 2020. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TU4nTnE2qvMFvJXsXaSzgCdU7ZWDv4ZU/view

Abstract: This research examined academic values among a broad sample of academics throughout the United States. The primary purpose of this research was to see if academic values are significantly related to field of expertise, political orientation, gender, and personality. Participants, who included 177 academics, were asked to indicate how much they prioritize five academic values, including academic rigor, academic freedom, student emotional well-being, social justice, and the advancement of knowledge. Political orientation was related to each of these values, except for academic freedom, with political liberalism corresponding to a focus on student emotional well-being and social justice with a concomitant de-emphasis on academic rigor and knowledge advancement. Area of expertise demonstrated a similar effect, with scholars from the field of education showing a pattern similar to those who have a strong liberal political orientation and scholars in the field of business showing the converse trend. Gender had independent effects, with females having stronger emphases on student emotional well-being and social justice compared with males. Finally, in terms of personality correlates, those who scored relatively high on a measure of agreeableness demonstrated more emphasis on student emotional well-being and social justice with a de-emphasis on academic rigor and knowledge advancement. Taken together, these findings indicate that academic values are strongly related to a variety of socially and psychologically relevant variables. Further, these data provide strong evidence that values among academics vary wildly as a function of such variables as political orientation, area of expertise, gender, and personality.

Keywords: Academic Values, Social Justice, Politics, Academic Freedom, Free Speech