Political biases
in higher education:
Criteria and evidence
Markus Kemmelmeier, Ph.D.
University of Nevada, Reno
Biographical note
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Ph.D. in psychology (University of Michigan,
2001)
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Social
Psychology, Dept of Sociology, University of
Nevada
Teaching and research in the area of social
psychology of education
Political biases in Education
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Different meanings of “bias”
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Differential student support, comfort
Differential hiring, firing of instructors/personnel
Discriminatory teaching practices
Different expectations for members of different groups
Favoritism, partial evaluation of performance
Are there politically/ideologically motivated
GRADING BIASES that challenge principles of
fairness and equity?
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SYSTEMATIC?
LARGE-SCALE?
Presumed by
Academic Freedom Movement
Perceptions of political bias
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Subjective assessments of bias
often flawed
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Anecdotal evidence, case studies
not representative
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Self-serving
Inaccurate
Driven by distrust
Self-selection problem
Claims of bias receive undue
attention
Objective and systematic
evidence needed to establish
presence (absence) of bias
Establishing Grading Bias
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BIAS: “Undeserved (dis)advantage to individuals
because of non-pertinent characteristics”
Bias as deviation from deservingness must be
demonstrated
Farkas, Sheehan & Grobe (1990) Amer Educ Research J
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Middle school students
Stud. Background:
Gender
Race/ethnicity
Social class
Grade
Bias?
Farkas et al. (1990)
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Do race, gender, class differences in grades
reflect differences in objective merit or bias?
Objective merit:
Coursework mastery
Student conduct
Stud. Background:
Gender
Race/ethnicity
Social class
Higher grades
than deserved:
- Girls
-Caucasians
-Asians
- higher SES
Grade
Bias (?)
Student-instructor similarity
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Student-instructor similarity results
sometimes in higher students grades
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Instructor bias?
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Instructor has to have opportunity to show (ideological)
favoritism
Is similarity incidental to student behavior?
 Compatibility of styles?
 Student motivation?
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What is the process that links political
student- instructor similarity to higher grades?
Political ideology of faculty
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ESTABLISHED:
Higher ed faculty are more left-leaning than
general population
 Social science, humanities faculty very left-leaning
 Economists, business faculty moderately left-leaning
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NOT (yet?) ESTABLISHED that
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left-leaning faculty orientation translates into a
academic disadvantage for right-leaning students
Kemmelmeier, Danielson & Basten (2005),
Personality & Social Psych Bulletin
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Compatibility effects: Students’ political
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ideology and success in strongly left-leaning
fields and not-so left-leaning fields
Large-scale examination of almost an entire
college cohort (3890 students) at a major public
university over 4 years
Do conservatives and liberals with same qualifications get different
grades in the same classroom?
A conservative and liberal student with identical qualifications (e.g. test
scores) and background characteristics take the same pair of courses
Liberal student
SOCIOLOGY 101
GRADELiberal = GRADEConserv
Student political ideology
has no influence
Conservative
student
ECONOMICS 101
GRADELiberal < GRADEConserv
The conservative student
receives a better grade
Compounding GPA differences
over time
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GPA advantage of conservative student over liberal
students in very left-leaning fields (e.g., sociology) vs. not so
left-leaning fields (e.g., economics)
2
1.5
Findings not compatible with
notion of pervasive
anti-conservative grading bias
Econ 101
Soc 101
1
Process?
Bias?
0.5
0
Year 1
-0.5
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Ideal Study to Establish Political Bias
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Assess student politics
Assess objective student deservingness/merit
Assess instructor politics (!)
Assess if instructor is aware of students politics (!)
Examine
 IF
student politics has an influence on grades net of
deservingness/merit
 HOW
student politics has an influence on grades
Anti-conservative grading biases not been empirically established,
but research cannot (yet) answer some critical questions
Appendix
Appendix 1.1
What the research cannot yet answer
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How general are existing findings from
systematic research?
Are student perceptions of political bias
accurate?
What is the educational cost of the mere perception
of political bias?
Are existing political compatibility effects masked
by conservative students “faking” views that their
teacher wants to hear?
Appendix 2.1
Sidanius et al. (1991), Political Psychology
FINDING: “Conservative students have
lower cumulative GPAs than liberal
students”
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Numerous potential explanations
“Conservatives are discriminated against”
 “Conservatives are not as academically prepared as
liberals”
 “Conservatives are not as motivated as liberals”
 “Conservatives take harder classes”
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Are conservative and liberal students comparable?
Appendix 2.2
Course choice and GPA
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Conservative students more likely to choose business,
economics classes/majors (=less left-leaning fields)
Liberal students more likely to choose sociology,
anthropology etc. classes/majors (=more left-leaning
fields)
Business, economics classes are “harder”
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Lower average grades
Sociology, anthropology classes are “easier”
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Higher average grades
 Conservative students have lower GPAs than
liberal students
Different outcomes due to course
choice, not grading bias!
Appendix 3.1
Anti-conservative bias in faculty hiring?
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Rothman, Lichter & Nevitte (2005) The Forum
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Bias as deviation from deservingness
Surveyed 1643 faculty from 183 colleges
Keeping background variables + academic
accomplishment constant
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Conservatives/Republicans/practicing Christians
were employed at less prestigious institutions than
liberals/Democrats/non-religious individuals
Process?
Bias?
Potential alternative
explanations?
Presentation downloadable from:
http://equinox.unr.edu/homepage/markusk/politicalbiasesEWA.ppt
Author contact:
Markus Kemmelmeier, Ph.D.
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Social Psychology
Department of Sociology/300
University of Nevada
Reno, Nevada 89557
(775) 784-1287
markusk@unr.edu