cliffelam and hootsbox, my apologies as I'm fairly certain I've scoffed in the past at the notion of academia being overtly liberal. It appears that it is.

It seems that the major finding is not that academia is left-leaning but rather that it has always been thus.

The 3 "folk theories" of why academia is more liberal:

1. Conservatives are more "closed minded" than liberals and are not open to new ideas and therefore will not fit well in to higher ed. 2. Higher education is not a career you go in to for the money, therefore it doesn't attract conservative minds. 3. Liberals are just smarter

Findings 1. Personality is hard to decipher but liberals are more likely to go to grad school in part, because they are more interested in studying abstraction. 2. Moderates are the most interested in making money 3. When looking at cognitive ability -no difference

I'd imagine that if you go to business school your perception of whether academia is liberal or conservative will be quite different than someone getting their MFA. It's an interesting discussion to have, but it's not a "problem" to be solved in my opinion, but perhaps that's because I lean left.