Why Do So Many People Become More Liberal When They Go To College?

Question

And why are so many professors liberals? Is it a liberal conspiracy? Or is there something about gaining knowledge that makes people more liberal?

I understand that working and being taxed can make someone conservative because of their desire to protect their own assets. What I cannot for the life of me understand is why that also leads to people not believing in evolution, becoming more religious, not believing in science, stem cell research, pretending that the Iraq war is not a tragic failure, hating anyone who disagrees with their counterfactual attempts to reconstruct reality the way they want it to be etc.... This bizzare mixture of what people call "conservative" and the things that mainstream conservatives believe seems impossible to me.

Answer 1

I'm from the UK, and I know that the US right is very much on it's own in the world. They speak for the very rich and control a big media machine. They have more in common with the Saudis and the Chinese than most Europeans. So when people find out about the 90% of the world that is not US, they will appear more liberal. By the way "liberal" is not a dirty word anywhere else than the USA, there appears to be some serious propaganda successfully going on

Answer 2

Im sorry I don't have an actual answer to your question, but I was reading the other answers and I'm getting so offended!

Why is it that professors are seen as some...liberal mind-washers that have no knowledge of the real world?
Most professors I know have PhDs and more knowledge than the majority of people on this site.
Is this how the right wing regards its educators? No wonder the education system is so sub-par in the US. Where I come from, professors and teachers are widely regarded.

It's quite the shame.

Answer 3

Perhaps there is a correlation between intelligence and liberal thinking. There is certainly a proven correlation between lack of intelligence and ignorance.

Perhaps intelligent people care for others while less intelligent people care only for themselves and their family.

Perhaps intelligent people would like a fair society, while less intelligent people aren't smart enough to realize that fair to all means better for everybody.

Perhaps the less intelligent actually believe the rubbish that spews out of the mass media every day of their lives.

Answer 4

At first it might be the normal, natural instint of the young person rebelling against a lot of the parents' rules_whether very strict or not_and once college years are over, and whether they are taught by ultra liberal, or ultral conservatives professors (those students could well be studying in a convent or seminar!), once they're out on their own, with all that life brings unexpectedly, then they will become what they will truly be for years. If not for the entirety of their lives!!!

Answer 5

By that logic it means that only the uneducated vote Republican. .
I have a college degree and come from a family of people with advanced degrees in the sciences and we all go the liberal route. When my parent's were in college the Korean War had just ended and they were seeing their friends come back with missing limbs. When I went to college in the early 90's the Gulf War was going on and my brother who was in the Marine Reserves was sent to Iraq while he was in college. He came back completely changed and full of hate for our government. Seeing what war has done to my relatives and friends has made me more of a liberal person. Not anything I learned in college.
Now professonally, since I work for a company that cleans up hazardous chemicals, biohazard and radioactive waste, I can say first hand it is important to protect our environment.
From having a police officer friend killed in the line of duty has made me want gun control, background checks and waiting limits.
So maybe you are right, an education does promote liberal thinking.

Answer 6

My personal experience at Valparaiso University runs counter to this assumption. There was a good mix of conservative and liberal professors just as you would expect to find in any cross section of the population.

Answer 7

Speaking from my own experiences... I'd lived in a small, rural community and moved to a large city for college. It was a combination of exposure to more diverse cultures and viewpoints, and learning aspects of history, particularly American history, that hadn't been taught in "homogenized high school history" textbooks and classes. Basically, high school focused more on dates, events and a clearcut 'black and white', right/wrong perspective where America always did the right thing. College history delved more into the 'gray areas' as well as the consequences of actions and policies.

Answer 8

A former ABC newscaster was interviewed once (I can't remember his name off hand) and said that "If you are not a liberal when you are young, you are heartless. If you are not a conservative when you are older, you don't have a job."

The thing about being young and liberal is that young people still have the ideals of helping those that need a leg up. As you get older, you work hard for the little money that you have. You become, for lack of a better word, greedy. You don't want to give up that money that you worked hard to get. When you are in college, you don't make much money anyways, so it's easier to have higher taxes.

Professors on the other hand never had to leave that college atmosphere and go out into the business world. They went right from school to teaching school.

EDIT: You have to understnad that there are differences between Conservatives and the Christian Right.

Answer 9

Too much booze and drugs impedes the ability to think for themselves. Then liberal professors get to fill their weakened minds with bilge. Also, Colleges, in most respects, deal with closed, less complicated systems than are encountered in reality. Most things seem to have a right and wrong answer and not so many shades of gray. While college students get informed about a great many things, ideas, cultures, etc. Nothing is ever learned so well from being taught, as it is from being experienced. Of all the things I learned in college, while I am still glad I went, are not of much use to me. All the higher maths I learned and needed to understand Physics (my major), I have not used hardly since. Some of the things I learned have been of use, playing Trivial Pursuit. The greatest thing I learned in college that has been of repeated use to me is how to wait patiently in line. So, if my worst horrors come true, and Hillary turns this country into the new Mecca of Socialism, I will at least have that to fall back on.

Answer 10

I truly believe that it's because they are away from their parents and can foster their own beliefs. As far as professors, I have had mostly Conservative ones, so I haven't experienced the Liberal "conspiracy" that you have. Gaining more knowledge, depending on the experience, could make you more Liberal or Conservative. It truly depends on peoples' individual experiences.