Have you ever thought about what has led you to your political beliefs? Have those beliefs changed since you entered Guilford? A study out of the University of California, Los Angeles, proposes that college students alter their political ideology by their junior year in school, and that their ideology isn’t influenced very strongly by professors.
In fact, college students’ political opinions are more influenced by their peers than professors. The study puts forth the idea that most students enter college identifying as centrist rather than right or left. However, by their junior or senior years, many have shifted left.
I myself am not particularly surprised that most American college campuses tend towards liberal ideology; I did find the idea of students being so heavily influenced by peers to be unexpected. I always thought that with added maturity and exposure to new ideas, a student would be less likely to follow the political paths of their friends. I thought college was a time for finding your own path, not your friends’.
“Professors do have influence in shaping students’ political views,” said Guilford Professor of Political Science George Guo in an email interview. “But students are influenced mainly by peer groups and the environment where they live on a day-by-day basis. College campuses not only stimulate the collegiate life that shapes and strengthens the values of equality and acceptance but also offers a place for them to gain exposure to a myriad of world views.”
According to the study, the majority of college campuses have more students who lean left than right. Students who lean towards the right were also concentrated at a smaller number of colleges than liberal students, which affected the result.
“If you find yourself in a peer group where on balance the attitudes lean left, you’ll tend to move in that direction,” said researcher Alexander Astin to USA Today.
“I think a lot of times, professors will plant the seed by just introducing you to a lot of different things that exist out in the world,” said University of Kansas student Tyler Childress to USA Today. “And then it’s really up to the student whether or not they’re willing to look and be sympathetic to those different viewpoints of the world.”
Rob Seiden, author of a similar study on the subject, found that many colleges and universities were very conducive to liberal ideology.
“We reasoned that such characteristics, along with others, might also produce an institutional context particularly conducive to the development of liberal political views,” said Seiden.
Seiden also noted that most college professors tend to lean more towards the liberal camp. It also pointed out that this was even more pronounced at small, liberal arts schools like Guilford.
“The small size of most liberal arts colleges would increase the likelihood of any individual student having frequent and extended interaction with these potentially more liberal faculty and peers,” said Seiden.
Guo noted that Guilford was no exception to this. Students here were likely to fall in line with liberal policy and ideas.
Interestingly, many students begin a right-hand shift after graduation according to the study results.
Guo explains this is likely due to the demands of real life, which requires a person to wipe away an idealistic view.
“After graduation they are forced to deal with the practical pressures of the real world where there are a lot of hard choices,” Guo said. “Idealism is replaced by a sense of tradition and realism.”
These political transitions continue into later adulthood.
“Despite your political leaning when you enter college, after graduation people tend to move to the right, then after retirement, people tend to move more to the left,” said Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Robert Duncan.
Then if things come full circle by the end of your life, anyway, maybe what your friends think politically in college doesn’t matter so much.
