Campus conversations can give a misleading picture of what students believe when those with moderate views are less willing to speak up. In a 2023 survey of 498 Duke University undergraduates, students with moderate views were often the least likely to share their opinions. Those with stronger positions tended to feel more confident and care more deeply about the issues, making them more willing to speak.
Conservative students were especially concerned about social rejection in a largely left-leaning campus community. Only 12 percent of students who described themselves as leaning right usually or always shared their political and social opinions in class. That rose to 49 percent when they were off campus with people who were not Duke students. Students on the left showed the opposite pattern, sharing slightly less often in that off-campus setting than in class.
The reasons for staying quiet also differed. Students on the right were more likely to fear isolation or feel that others would dismiss their opinions. Those on the left were more likely to cite nervousness about expressing themselves accurately or a lack of confidence. Identity and the topic mattered, too. Black students, for example, were more likely than white students to share their views on Black Lives Matter. Taken together, these differences meant that the views students heard often leaned farther left than the views students privately held.
Understanding campus speech means paying attention to who stays quiet, not just who speaks. Colleges can learn more about their campus climate by tracking students' willingness to hear different views and disagree respectfully. These results describe self-reported behavior at one university, not all college students, and do not establish cause and effect. This NBER working paper has not been peer-reviewed.