Have you any idea why so many students identify as other than heterosexual? Is it simply fashionable to claim to be in a sexual minority? Do we have any behavioural data about whether their self-identification matches their actual sexual behaviour?
It seems there is a nexus between being "fluid" in sexual orientation and being anxious and unhappy, some form of sensitivity or vulnerability.
I cannot work out why "Bi-sexual" are the most distressed, other than speculating they do not have a coherent ideological group to bolster their self esteem.
The self-identified wave of LGBTQ reminds me of what has happened with tattoos, except less permanent for those who avoid hormonal and surgical interventions. Tattoos are so ubiquitous now that those who have no tattoos are the truly unique and independent thinkers. Perhaps someday it will be the same for those who embrace their biological sex.
I know that these types of study are a means to our best informed view of "the whole" but there are ~19m university and college students in the USA and this sample size is 57k. It would be helpful to know as well what qualifies as an "elite university" so that we could then determine the denominator and see what percentage this sample represents. Sometimes questionnaires are all we have but the map is not the territory. I think there's a there there but I'm cautious about the inference to such macro trends from this data.
Just curious why you single out “Jews” as a demographic in your summary? Are you an anti-Semite? You don’t bother to mention the relevant number of Muslims, Christians, Hindus, et al.
"IVD represents the Index of Viewpoint Diversity, which is calculated based on the absolute value of %Democrat-%Republican plus %Liberal-%Conservative times 10,000 (interpret 300 as lower than 2.300, again for coding reasons). You can also sort by the percentage of the student body identifying with a partisan or ideological label."
What's going on with the 300 > 2.3 thing? I'm looking at the raw data and I can't tell how you created the IVD.
I don't think the last chart listing all the schools is correct, or I'm not understanding it. It's the last two columns, lib/cons and dem/rep. If I'm reading it right, it's saying U of Arkansas has 4 liberals for every 1 conservative while Smith has 1.9? Maybe it's just that the heading is misleading.
So the U Arkansas results in a 3.96 on your chart, while Smith is a 1.9. I just don't see how those numbers relate to the percentages you just gave. And the heading is libs to cons, so I'd think the more liberal school would have the higher number, but it's the reverse. Anyway, if you think it says what you want it to say, just ignore me and I'm sure I'm misreading.
You mean the IVD scores. These are calculated by averaging two 7-point scales from very liberal to very conservative (1-7) and strong Dem to strong Rep. For the 3.96, that is very close to a 4, which is neither liberal nor conservative.
No, but I think I understand my mistake based on your comments. I'm looking at the penultimate column of your last chart, headed avg lib/con. And Arkansas is 3.96 and Smith is 1.9. I took it to mean some sort of ratio of number of libs divided by number of cons. And that wouldn't make sense based on the results. But I think it's some sort of IVD based number, just not the IVD itself. Like the difference between liberal and conservative IVD scores at each school. So got it (I think), thanks
Have you any idea why so many students identify as other than heterosexual? Is it simply fashionable to claim to be in a sexual minority? Do we have any behavioural data about whether their self-identification matches their actual sexual behaviour?
We do, actually! Read Eric's last report: https://www.cspicenter.com/p/born-this-way-the-rise-of-lgbt-as-a-social-and-political-identity
Dear Johah, Champion answer! A vertitable barrage of a report, for which many thanks.
The spur for my question was a short post I made on a paper on self reported sexual orientation and psychological difficulties.
https://www.unz.com/jthompson/sexual-orientation-and-psychological-disorder/
It seems there is a nexus between being "fluid" in sexual orientation and being anxious and unhappy, some form of sensitivity or vulnerability.
I cannot work out why "Bi-sexual" are the most distressed, other than speculating they do not have a coherent ideological group to bolster their self esteem.
Again, thanks for all this detailed work
James
Sounds right, but the use of the term "flyover states" makes me distrust the reporting.
The self-identified wave of LGBTQ reminds me of what has happened with tattoos, except less permanent for those who avoid hormonal and surgical interventions. Tattoos are so ubiquitous now that those who have no tattoos are the truly unique and independent thinkers. Perhaps someday it will be the same for those who embrace their biological sex.
Interested to know the impetus for your question.
I would look at the Hillel statistics regarding Jewish students
I know that these types of study are a means to our best informed view of "the whole" but there are ~19m university and college students in the USA and this sample size is 57k. It would be helpful to know as well what qualifies as an "elite university" so that we could then determine the denominator and see what percentage this sample represents. Sometimes questionnaires are all we have but the map is not the territory. I think there's a there there but I'm cautious about the inference to such macro trends from this data.
Just curious why you single out “Jews” as a demographic in your summary? Are you an anti-Semite? You don’t bother to mention the relevant number of Muslims, Christians, Hindus, et al.
The table under "appendix" has different data than the link. Are they from two different years?
"IVD represents the Index of Viewpoint Diversity, which is calculated based on the absolute value of %Democrat-%Republican plus %Liberal-%Conservative times 10,000 (interpret 300 as lower than 2.300, again for coding reasons). You can also sort by the percentage of the student body identifying with a partisan or ideological label."
What's going on with the 300 > 2.3 thing? I'm looking at the raw data and I can't tell how you created the IVD.
Any explanation would be much appreciated!
Was all about getting the backend coding to display properly. For some reason the table would not display at low values and sort. As boring as that.
Interested to know how many of those who ID as LGBTQ actually have gay sex.
I don't think the last chart listing all the schools is correct, or I'm not understanding it. It's the last two columns, lib/cons and dem/rep. If I'm reading it right, it's saying U of Arkansas has 4 liberals for every 1 conservative while Smith has 1.9? Maybe it's just that the heading is misleading.
U Arkansas is about 35% liberal and 35% conservative, the two overlap precisely.
Smith is over 80% liberal and almost 0% conservative.
Ignore the horizontal axis
So the U Arkansas results in a 3.96 on your chart, while Smith is a 1.9. I just don't see how those numbers relate to the percentages you just gave. And the heading is libs to cons, so I'd think the more liberal school would have the higher number, but it's the reverse. Anyway, if you think it says what you want it to say, just ignore me and I'm sure I'm misreading.
You mean the IVD scores. These are calculated by averaging two 7-point scales from very liberal to very conservative (1-7) and strong Dem to strong Rep. For the 3.96, that is very close to a 4, which is neither liberal nor conservative.
No, but I think I understand my mistake based on your comments. I'm looking at the penultimate column of your last chart, headed avg lib/con. And Arkansas is 3.96 and Smith is 1.9. I took it to mean some sort of ratio of number of libs divided by number of cons. And that wouldn't make sense based on the results. But I think it's some sort of IVD based number, just not the IVD itself. Like the difference between liberal and conservative IVD scores at each school. So got it (I think), thanks