Dangers of Left Leaning Academia

Academics are left leaning in most countries. As Jonathan Haidt wrote:

“Most people know that professors in America, and in most countries, generally vote for left-leaning parties and policies.”

A recent survey in social psychology showed a left to right ratio of 14:1! This would by typical of the ratio in most academic circles. But does that even matter? Yes, because of the not-too-uncommon perception that professors are right because of their degrees and qualification (the halo effect) rather than the strength of their arguments.

That’s when it hit me that academics being left leaning is a non-issue in the sciences: nature is the way it is; and your opinions don’t change the truth. And in sciences, facts, theories and experimental data will win the day…eventually, if not immediately.

But does the left leaning matter in the social sciences? Yes, says Haidt, because it leads to a “political diversity crisis”:

“(Such a lack of diversity would mean that academics) continue to think of diversity only in terms of the demographic categories that most matter to people on the left: race, gender and sexual orientation.”

Sure, those categories are important, but they are not the only ones that matter to everyone. It misses a whole lot of categories that most laymen care about.

But surely no field can be perfectly balanced, can it? So why single out the social sciences? Haidt agrees but points out the problem when the ratio becomes too one-sided:

“An academic field that leans left (or right) can still function, as long as ideological claims or politically motivated research is sure to be challenged. But when a field goes from leaning left to being entirely on the left, the normal safeguards of peer review and institutionalized disconfirmation break down. Research on politically controversial topics becomes unreliable because politically favored conclusions receive less-than-normal scrutiny while politically incorrect findings must scale mountains of motivated and hostile reasoning from reviewers and editors.”

I loved Haidt’s book, The Happiness Hypothesis, partly because he presents the arguments extremely well, and also because he is prepared to go to great lengths to understand the other side’s perspective. The article and points mentioned above just reiterate my admiration for the man.