{"id":1766,"date":"2017-12-15T21:40:36","date_gmt":"2017-12-16T02:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1766"},"modified":"2017-12-15T21:40:36","modified_gmt":"2017-12-16T02:40:36","slug":"groupthink-in-academia-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Groupthink in Academia"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to The College Fix, <\/em>a campus watchdog organization run by students, the political donations<\/a> of Duke University employees are ten times<\/em> higher in the year since Donald Trump was elected to the presidency than they were in the year following the reelection of Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

The Center for Responsive Politics found that Duke faculty and staff members made 870 individual contributions within the last year.\u00a0 This number is in stark contrast with the 88 individual contributions that they made over the span of 2013.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s telling, but unsurprising, is that of the 870 political contributions made by Duke University employees, all but six <\/em>were made to leftist, Democratic Party causes and candidates.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the ideological and political homogeneity that prevails at Duke is all too representative<\/a> of that which imbues the contemporary academic world:<\/p>\n

In the social sciences, Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly twelve to one<\/em>.\u00a0 This is the finding of research into five fields\u2014economics, journalism, history, psychology, and law\u2014at 40 \u201cleading\u201d universities.<\/p>\n

The researchers admitted that the Democrat-to-Republican ratio is \u201ceven higher\u201d than they had suspected, and that it is highest at the more prestigious universities. They also found that \u201can awful lot of departments have zero Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Columbia University, in the five disciplines on which the study focuses, there were a total of 179 registered Democrats and a total of six <\/em>registered Republicans.\u00a0 This is a Democrat: Republican ratio of nearly 30 to one<\/em>.\u00a0 Yet of the 40 universities studied, Columbia still came in at having only the ninth <\/em>highest Democrat-to-Republican ratio behind eight other institutions.<\/p>\n

Caltech and Worchester Polytechnic Institute, which came in at first (13:0) and second places (9:0), respectively, are technical institutions with significantly lower overall numbers than are typical of the generic university.\u00a0 Yet they rank as high as they do because they have zero <\/em>Republicans in the fields in question.\u00a0 In third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth places are Brown University (60:1); Boston University (40:1); John Hopkins (35:1); Rochester University (35:1);\u00a0 Northeastern University (33:1); and Tufts University (32:1).<\/p>\n

In total, this study \u201clooked up 7,243 professors and found 3,623 to be registered Democratic and 314 [registered] Republican.\u201d The remaining weren\u2019t registered with either party.<\/p>\n

It has long been common knowledge among those in the know that while institutions of higher education should be the most intellectually free and diverse places in the world, in reality they are anything but this.\u00a0 Quite the contrary: a remotely objective, casual observer of academia can\u2019t fail to be struck by the ideological and political uniformity pervading American faculty.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Groupthink is as visible in academia as it is anywhere. Actually, it is more prevalent in academia than it is almost anywhere.<\/p>\n

The social psychologist Irving Janis characterized the phenomenon that he referred to as \u201cGroupthink\u201d in terms of the following symptoms:<\/p>\n

(1)The illusion of invulnerability<\/strong><\/p>\n

(2)Collective rationalization<\/strong><\/p>\n

(3)Belief in inherent morality<\/strong><\/p>\n

(4)Stereotyped views of out-groups<\/strong><\/p>\n

(5)Direct pressure on dissenters<\/strong><\/p>\n

(6)Self-censorship<\/strong><\/p>\n

(7)Illusion of unanimity <\/strong><\/p>\n

(8)Self-appointed \u201cmindguards\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it is considered that the <\/em>in-group of academia is powered by a \u201cprogressivist\u201d vision, Janis\u2019s \u201csymptoms\u201d seem that much more fitting:<\/p>\n

(1)The illusion of invulnerability, as Janis labeled it, generates \u201cexcessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.\u201d Historically, and much to the chagrin of its countless victims, excessive optimism and the extreme risk-taking to which it leads are hallmarks of leftist ideology in action.<\/p>\n

(2)As for collective rationalization, this transpires inasmuch as the group\u2019s members fail to revisit their presuppositions\u2014even after others warn them as to the disastrous consequences to which their plans could lead.\u00a0 Again, one will not be hard pressed to find illustrations of leftists ignoring warnings and clinging to the assumptions underwriting the destructive policies that they continue to support.<\/p>\n

(3)Members\u2019 belief in the inherent morality of the group\u2019s causes is actually a belief in the moral superiority<\/em> of those causes and, thus, the concomitant conviction that the pursuit and realization of those causes are without any objectionable consequences.<\/p>\n

(4)The in-group needs an \u201cenemy,\u201d an out-group that it can demonize.\u00a0 We see how the left, whether in academia or elsewhere, satisfies this need today.\u00a0 Members of out-groups are \u201cstereotyped\u201d as \u201cracists,\u201d \u201csexists,\u201d \u201chomophobes,\u201d \u201cIslamophobes,\u201d \u201cwhite supremacists,\u201d \u201ccolonialists,\u201d \u201ccapitalists,\u201d \u201cthe rich,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n

(5)Members of the in-group, or at least those who are believed to be members, are pressured to resist deviating in any key respects from the party line.\u00a0 Examples of this \u201csymptom\u201d of Groupthink in academia abound, with dissenting left-liberal academics being treated at least as scornfully as those to their right who belong to the out-group: Blacks<\/a> who are deemed by the members of the in-group of being insufficiently progressive are derided as \u201csell-outs,\u201d \u201coreos,\u201d \u201crace-traitors,\u201d and worse, while women<\/a> who incur the academic left\u2019s wrath find that their womanhood is denied to them.<\/p>\n

And, of course, if the deviant is a white liberal man<\/a>, then he is ultimately objectified as a \u201cracist\u201d and \u201cwhite supremacist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that dissent, at least over certain fundamental propositions, is not tolerated by the in-group.<\/p>\n

(6)That this last message is usually received loudly and clearly is borne out by the fact that the members of the in-group censor themselves:\u00a0 Seeing the fate of those of their fellow members who have dared to challenge the orthodoxy of the group, individual members of the academic clique will suppress their thoughts when they are at odds with the group\u2019s orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

(7)The illusion of unanimity is strong among academic leftists.\u00a0 It is indeed assumed that the majority perspective is the perspective of all of their colleagues.<\/p>\n

(8) \u201cMindguards\u201d are those members of the group\u2014this would be whole departments at most colleges and universities around the country\u2014that strive to immunize the ideology of the group against any potential threats to it.<\/p>\n

There is much more that needs to be said on this subject of academic Groupthink. Far too few studies have as yet to be done on it.<\/p>\n

However, as I was at pains to show here, there can be no question that Groupthink does in fact exist among contemporary academics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to The College Fix, a campus watchdog organization run by students, the political donations of Duke University employees are ten times higher in the year since Donald Trump was elected to the presidency than they were in the year following the reelection of Barack Obama. The Center for Responsive Politics found that Duke faculty…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGroupthink in Academia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Groupthink in Academia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to The College Fix, a campus watchdog organization run by students, the political donations of Duke University employees are ten times higher in the year since Donald Trump was elected to the presidency than they were in the year following the reelection of Barack Obama. The Center for Responsive Politics found that Duke faculty…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-16T02:40:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Groupthink in Academia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Groupthink in Academia","og_description":"According to The College Fix, a campus watchdog organization run by students, the political donations of Duke University employees are ten times higher in the year since Donald Trump was elected to the presidency than they were in the year following the reelection of Barack Obama. The Center for Responsive Politics found that Duke faculty…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2017-12-16T02:40:36+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html","name":"Groupthink in Academia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-12-16T02:40:36+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-16T02:40:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/groupthink-in-academia-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Groupthink in Academia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1767,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions\/1767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}