Fake Views? Whether, When and Why Conservative Students Express Authentic Political Views on Campus

Research suggests that some right-leaning students tend to self-censor in college classrooms and campuses, denying both themselves and their classmates the potential educational benefits of honest, open dialogue. But little research has examined why conservative students make the decisions they do about whether and how to express their political views. To explore this issue, I interviewed twenty self-identified right-leaning college students from three colleges/universities in southeast Pennsylvania about their thoughts on and experiences with political expression on campus. This presentation offers insights into how these conservative students determine when and whether to express their political beliefs; their recollections of their direct experiences with doing so; their perceptions of the boundaries of acceptable debate in college; and their beliefs about their professors’ and peers’ perceptions of them. I offer recommendations for how discourse on campus might be conceived or approached differently by various participants