A new study from Northwestern University has found that nearly nine in ten college students admitted to pretending to hold left-wing political views to satisfy their professors or classmates.
Researchers interviewed about 1,500 undergraduate students at Northwestern and the University of Michigan between 2023 and 2025, aiming to determine “What happens to identity formation when belief is replaced by adherence to orthodoxy?” Students were asked if they had ever faked support for left-wing positions they did not actually hold in order to succeed socially or academically in college.
“An astounding 88 percent said yes,” the researchers wrote in The Hill. “These students were not cynical, but adaptive. In a campus environment where grades, leadership, and peer belonging often hinge on fluency in performative morality, young adults quickly learn to rehearse what is safe. The result is not conviction but compliance. And beneath that compliance, something vital is lost.”
The study found that 78 percent of students self-censor their beliefs on gender identity, 72 percent on politics, and 68 percent on family values. More than 80 percent said they had turned in coursework misrepresenting their views to align with professors.
“For many, this has become second nature — an instinct for academic and professional self-preservation,” the researchers added. The largest example was that 77 percent of students disagreed with the idea that gender identity should come before biological sex in areas such as sports, healthcare, or public data, but said they would never express that disagreement publicly. 38 percent described being “morally confused” and were uncertain if honesty was still ethical if it meant being socially excluded.
“We do not fault students for perpetuating a climate that is hostile to intellectual integrity,” the researchers said. “We fault the faculty, administrators, and institutional leaders who built a system that rewards moral theater while punishing inquiry. In shielding students from discomfort, they have also shielded them from discovery. The result is a generation confident in self-righteousness, but uncertain in self.”
