Thread by @drlaurenawright

My new piece in @TheAtlantic this AM previews the thesis of a book project I’ve been working on. In the severe ideological minority at elite universities, conservative students are getting more out of the college experience than their liberal peers. In a word, they are tested, constantly made to articulate and defend their views, often emerging more resilient in the process. 1/N

I’m less than a quarter way through the 200 interviews I’ve planned for the book, but the asymmetry in conversations w/ liberal and conservative students is striking. First, conservatives are much more likely to have had the experience of being challenged in class by other students or professors, they are much more likely to attend events w/ speakers w/ whom they disagree, and most have faced and overcome social consequences as a result of their views. Liberals hardly have any of these experiences. 2/N

Second, conservatives are used to having their views and policy preferences probed for weak spots. They know the counterarguments on all the issues they care about - immigration, abortion, economic and social policy - you name it. Liberals, for the most part, can’t cite these. 3/N

One good example is the Israel/Palestine issue, where conservative students can easily articulate pro-Palestine arguments, even though they typically don’t agree w/ them. “Israel’s actions in Gaza breed more bad will toward Israel in the long run,” one conservative said. Liberal students, by contrast, are openly critical of Israel, but struggle to describe policy alternatives. When I asked one progressive Pro-Palestine student what he thinks Israel should have done instead after Oct. 7, he couldn’t answer. “That’s where it gets tough,” he said. “Obviously they can’t do nothing.” 4/N

Progressive pro-Palestine students have even tried to censor their peers w/ divergent views. At Princeton, pro-Palestine students obtained “no-communication orders” against conservative student journalists who were recording public campus protests. In response, the conservative students wrote scathing op-eds in national papers and enlisted free speech lawyers and orgs, eventually changing campus policy. 5/N

The result is a clear divide in preparedness for life after college. Conservatives have had to navigate uncomfortable and difficult interpersonal and intellectual environments, experiences psychologists agree are good for cognitive growth and emotional wellbeing. 6/N

Liberal academia has largely robbed liberal students of these rewards. They emerge from college much the same way as they came in, having experienced few of the challenging but ultimately beneficial scenarios conservatives have. N/N