When Students Lack Peer-to-Peer Connections, They Self-Censor
Students, from high school to college, and across the political spectrum, are reluctant to express their views. Schools ostensibly provide opportunities for students to explore new ideas and practice the civil discourse expected of them in a liberal democracy, but students increasingly self-censor instead. Recent studies show this problem is mounting, creating obstacles for the peer-to-peer connections integral to learning and democratic citizenship.
To meet the ideal of an education centered around the pursuit of knowledge and truth, campuses and classrooms must play an active role in mitigating these trends. Schools can foster among students a shared sense of the purpose of an education. And instructors can cultivate high-quality interactions among students while echoing this shared sense of purpose.
A recent Knight Foundation-Ipsos report found that only a little over half of high school students feel comfortable disagreeing with teachers and their peers in class. A similar survey that Knight-Ipsos administered to college students comparing data from 2022 to 2016 showed that just under half of students feel comfortable expressing disagreement in classrooms, and 65% agreed that the climate on their campus prevents people from saying what they believe – up from 54.7% in 2016.
A William F. Buckley, Jr. Program survey showed similar results, as did a three-year comparative report by Heterodox Academy. The Buckley Program found that 63% of students feel intimidated sharing their views if they differ from their peers and classmates. And Heterodox Academy found that students increasingly agreed, from 54.7% in 2019 to 63.5% in 2021, with the statement: “The climate on my campus prevents some people from saying things they believe because others might find them offensive.”
Further, a student assessment administered by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and College Pulse found that 44% of students who identify as Democrats, 58% who identify as independents, and 73% who identify as Republicans report self-censoring because they fear how other students, a professor, or the administration would respond.
If the goal of an education is to pursue knowledge and truth and prepare for life in a democratic society, as many schools claim, why are students so reluctant to say what they believe?
The legitimate fear of being judged likely contributes to such reluctance. Emma Camp, a recent graduate of the University of Virginia, observed that when controversial views are raised, rather than constructive criticism and lively debate, classrooms get tense, people shift in their seats, and when one person expresses anger, others join in. So as not to endure this experience, students with views that diverge from the norm, according to Camp, close the door or talk quietly among themselves. Yascha Mounk, a political scientist, noticed a similar trend among his students. One student told Mounk she didn’t feel comfortable debating fraught topics with classmates outside of the classroom; she preferred to have such conversations behind closed doors among close friends. This perspective, Mounk noted, was shared by many students.
Losing out on important academic opportunities also may lead to such reluctance. Maya Rackoff, an undergraduate student at Brown University, after scoring an interview with journalist and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, learned that her student newspaper wouldn’t publish a story quoting a public figure with views contrary to the campus orthodoxy. Prior to her own experience with censorship, Rackoff watched a friend get kicked off her high school lacrosse team and blocked from social groups and gatherings for expressing a view others found disagreeable.
A more widespread and long-standing issue that gives students pause may be the alienation they feel from their peers and their school. Wendy Fischman, a project director at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Howard Gardner, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, conducted a five-year, pre-pandemic study interviewing 1,000 college students, and they found that nearly half of students misunderstand the purpose of college; they don’t see it as a knowledge- and truth-seeking institution. Instead, they take a transactional view, one that prioritizes building a résumé over learning and transforming one’s mind. This has led students to become disenchanted with their college experience and feel as if they don’t belong.
This may seem puzzling, given that colleges and universities expend many resources making campuses feel like home. But dormitories, student centers, and dining halls don’t guarantee the sort of high-quality interactions that classroom discussions can provide.
According to Heterodox Academy, in 2020, only 9% of students surveyed reported high-quality interactions—not surprising, given that only 11% of students were attending classes either primarily or fully in-person. Interaction quality did not substantially improve in 2021, either, when 62% of students were attending classes fully or primarily in-person; only 21% reported high-quality interactions. And, as Fischman and Gardner report, alienation from peers has long been a problem on college campuses. Moving courses online only made it worse.
Students are also experiencing a decline in sociality. More than 20 years ago, in his book Bowling Alone, social scientist Robert Putnam chronicled declining social engagement among Americans. He noted the deterioration of social institutions that previously brought people together. The problem has not abated, partly due to social media and other online platforms. For teens and young adults, time spent on social media is replacing in-person interactions, increasing loneliness and eroding a sense of belonging.
Given such alienation, low-quality interactions, and decreased sociality, it’s no wonder that students are reluctant to share their views. They don’t know their peers very well.
Though student belonging and engagement remain persistent problems, schools are still the place to encourage high-quality interactions. Rather than fostering the individual pursuit of résumé-building, educational institutions should be centered on learning and opening one’s mind to new perspectives, thus reducing alienation and the fear of sharing one’s views.
