88% of college students pretend to hold progressive views in order to be socially, academically accepted: study

Researchers with psychFORM conducted confidential interviews with 1,452 undergraduate students between 2023 and 2025 at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. When asked, "Have you ever pretended to hold more progressive views than you believed to be accepted socially or academically," 88 percent of students said yes. The study also found that 72 percent of students feel "reasoned disagreement with progressive views" is not treated with respect.

The study looked at the rates at which students self-censored to avoid ideological conflict, with 78 percent saying they self-censored on the topic of gender identity, 72 percent for political beliefs, and 68 percent for family values.

The majority of students, 82 percent, said that they submitted assignments misrepresenting their actual views in order to align with an expected ideology. When submitting work that "challenged expected views," 80 percent said they did not receive positive feedback on their work.

The study also asked students whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement, "Gender identity should override biological sex in athletics, healthcare, or legal documents." 77 percent of students disagreed, and of those who disagreed, 91 percent of them said they would not say so publicly.

When looking at reputational threats, 81 percent agreed that "silence is safest when unsure how views will be received," 77 percent agreed "peers assume morality based on ideological alignment," and 74 percent agreed "expressing moderate views can harm reputation."

Among friends, 73 percent of college students surveyed said they avoid sharing values with their close friends, while just eight percent were "fully open" with their friends. Nearly half of the respondents said they conceal beliefs in an intimate relationship.

Kevin Waldman and Forest Romm, clinical psychology researchers with psychFORM, wrote in an op-ed for The Hill, "Universities often justify these dynamics in the name of inclusion. But inclusion that demands dishonesty is not ensuring psychological safety — it is sanctioning self-abandonment. In attempting to engineer moral unity, higher education has mistaken consensus for growth and compliance for care."

They later added, "If higher education is to fulfill its promise as a site of intellectual and moral development, it must relearn the difference between support and supervision. It must re-center truth — not consensus — as its animating value. And it must give back to students what it has taken from them: the right to believe, and the space to become."