Why do so many students on college campuses lean left?

As the college environment allows students to begin exploring and voicing their political beliefs, a majority of students find themselves supporting policies and issues that align with left-wing ideas. 

Recent research on political beliefs among young people has found that a large percentage of college students identify as more left-leaning than conservative. Data from a 2020 Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) survey found that 50% of college students identify as liberal, whereas 26% percent are conservative and 37% are moderates. In contrast, 28% of Americans overall are liberal, 26% are conservative and 23% are moderates, demonstrating that a larger percentage of students in college are liberal than in the general population. 

Dr. Jake Schiller, a teaching assistant professor in the department of political science, said there are two ways to look at the equation of liberalism on college campuses — by exploring why young people are more left-leaning than other parts of society and why college students, in particular, are more left-leaning than other young people in their generation.

“First, you can learn your political identity, your political beliefs, from your parents, from teachers, from the world at large and what’s going on in it and key trusted sources,” Schiller said. “So maybe religious leaders, maybe close family, friends, people who are able to influence your development, and that’s not just in your political beliefs, but it’s all of your beliefs.”

Schiller said younger generations are increasingly more liberal because they grow up in social environments where they are more exposed to liberal beliefs rather than conservative ones. 

“It’s this continuous process where older generations die off, and younger generations that were exposed to more liberal ideas in society replace them,” Schiller said. “The rest of the cohort that is then socializing the younger generation is itself more liberal, so we see this process of continuously moving in that direction. You know, it’s not necessarily that there’s some scheme going on somewhere out there, but the world is changing. The world is evolving.” 

Schiller said he believes that in addition to students’ exposure to ideas from their support systems growing up, psychological traits like openness to experience play a role in students developing liberal beliefs.  

“As the world gets more advanced, complicated, crazy, there’s these new things being introduced,” Schiller said. “The more that we are open to that as a society, the more that we are developing psychological traits that lead to liberal beliefs, and so the socialization with this openness to the new things that we’re discovering and experiencing and seeing in the world leads to more liberal beliefs amongst younger generations.”

Schiller said college students in particular are largely liberal because those who choose to attend college are often more open to new ideas than those who do not.  

“People go to college for different reasons, but the idea is that you’re learning new things. You’re not going just to be indoctrinated in one set of beliefs,” Schiller said. “You’re being exposed to new ideas.” 

According to data from the 2020 American National Electoral Study, 45% of people 18-21 who have at least some college say they are on the left, compared with 33.9% of those who are older but have obtained some form of higher education. In comparison, only 35% of young people who did not go to college are left-leaning.

Dr. Scott Morgenstern, a professor in the Department of Political Science, believes college students often have a “cosmopolitan” way of viewing the world due to the new experiences and perspectives afforded by the college environment, which in part could explain why college students are generally more liberal than older populations.

“Students are breaking away from their families, they’re breaking away from their communities and they’re having new exposure to the world,” Morgenstern said. “In getting exposed to the world, they see new injustices and unfairness and things that they want to fix, and they’re not tied to these same old social structures in the same way. And therefore, you know, it’s not surprising that they see themselves on the left that sees these problems.”

Patrick Francis, the press secretary for Pitt’s chapter of College Democrats, said he believes most college students are liberal due to left-wing policies most commonly addressing issues that affect younger populations.

“When you’re a young voter, you’re not necessarily well-off yet in terms of making money. You’re still trying to get your foot in the door, [and you’re] waiting for your career to take off,” Francis, a first-year law student, said. “That’s a time in life when policies that make our society more equal in terms of opportunity are most beneficial, and that definitely plays in on college campuses.”

Francis said in addition to economic issues, social issues like acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities are an important factor that influences younger generations’ political beliefs.

“A large number of Gen Z identifies as LGBTQ in ways that previous generations didn’t, and that also then tends to correlate with being members of the Democratic Party,” Francis said. “So it’s a confluence of a lot of different factors that lead to left-wing college campuses.”

While students like Francis believe that a large amount of college students resonate with left-wing ideas as a result of the Democratic Party’s proposed solutions to economic and social issues, other students argue that the shift toward liberalism is due to students not being willing to hear other perspectives.   

Joshua Minksy, co-president of Pitt’s chapter of College Republicans, said he thinks many students who choose to attend Pitt grow up in “very liberal communities” and carry beliefs of those in their hometowns into their college careers, often holding negative attitudes about conservatives. 

“When people grow up, they just think that being liberal, voting Democrat, is the norm,” Minsky, a senior neuroscience major, said. “I think a lot of people I’ve found look down on people who vote Republican. They think that they’re idiots, that they’re racist, they’re transphobic, all the different names, all the different mush words [that] get thrown at us.”

Minsky said that from his experience, students with viewpoints differing from his own are not used to others challenging their beliefs and are not open to new ideas as a result.

“When you’re not used to hearing the word ‘no’ or someone opposing your beliefs, then it’s very surprising when someone finally comes along and says, ‘You know what, you’re wrong’ [or] ‘I don’t agree with you,’” Minsky said. “People don’t know how to handle that, so they get upset and they go into their bubble. When they’ve heard something for 20 years, it’s unfathomable that someone would disagree with them. And no one ever has — no one’s ever pushed back against most people on this campus, so it’s hard to change [their] minds.”

Minksy said although he believes there is a “climate against conservatives” on college campuses, a small number of students have been receptive to College Republican meetings.

“I think people are generally closed-off. I don’t think people want to change their mind,” Minsky said. “Like I said, it’s very difficult to convince someone to change their mind, but I’ve certainly met a lot of people that are open [to] College Republicans. We allow free speech and political discourse. There’s plenty of people that don’t even want other people that know they’re in the club, because of the cultural stigma against us. [It’s] so unfortunate.”