Join us in Chicago for the HxA Conference, June 6-8!

It's never mattered more. Regular Registration ends April 30.

Reserve your seat
Heterodox Academy
Back to Podcasts
June 5, 2017+Team HxA
+Viewpoint Diversity

Episode 4: April Kelly-Woessner, Declining Political Tolerance

In this episode, Chris Martin interviews April Kelly-Woessner, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Legal Studies at Elizabethtown College. She specializes in public opinion, mass behavior, and political psychology. She is the co-editor of The Still Divided Academy: How Competing Visions of Power Politics and Diversity Complicate the Mission of Higher Education (2011).   2:30 Marcuse reflected in a Harvard Crimson op-ed 7:21 Why political researchers mistakenly thought tolerance was increasing 8:10 Shutting down opinions reflects an insecurity about civic knowledge 12:00 Often, American government classes are taught by high school coaches 13:00 How do you teach students about political tolerance? 19:10 Are conservatives opting out of academia because of college experiences? 21:40 The role of viewpoint diversity in making people tolerant 23:35 At small colleges, students can’t self-isolate 26:28 Is there an effect among people who don’t attend college? 27:10 Social media and intolerance Selected Quotes
“What we find is that confidence in civic knowledge correlates pretty strongly and is a good predictor of political tolerance. So if you think you know a lot relative to other people, if you think you can hold your own in a political conversation, you’re more tolerant than people who are insecure about their civic knowledge. So I think the perception of these college students protestors is that they’re ideological radicals who have these strong opinions, and yet what they data shows is wanting to shut down other voices reflects an insecurity to defend your own. So the decline in civic knowledge is a big factor in political intolerance.”
“On average, the [people] that aren’t in college are less tolerant than the ones that are. So this [rising intolerance] isn’t just something that’s just happening on college campuses. I think campuses become a spotlight for this. And I wouldn’t even say that college campuses are creating this, but I would argue that if we are serious about the mission of higher education, we have an obligation to counter it. This is the place where we are supposed to listen to other people, and to engage in ideas that are different than their own.”
  You can learn more April Kelly-Woessner at her faculty page. Her posts on the Heterodox Academy blog can be found here. Some articles and books mentioned during the interview: Social Justice and Social Order: Binding Moralities across the Political Spectrum The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy   Other episodes of Half Hour of Heterodoxy.
Share:

Get HxA In Your Inbox

Related Podcasts
Diana Mutz Episode
Episode 11: The Diploma Divide: How Education Shapes Our Political Landscape
March 13, 2024+Diana C. Mutz
+Viewpoint Diversity+Constructive Disagreement+Campus Climate
Make a donation
Make a Donation

Your generosity supports our non-partisan efforts to advance the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement to improve higher education and academic research.

Get HxA In Your Inbox
This site use cookies.

To better improve your site experience, we collect some data. To see what types of information we collect, read our Cookie Policy.