Key Takeaways:

• Over 47% of CES Respondents At Least Somewhat Reluctant to Discuss Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• Republicans, Independents, and Unaffiliated Students More Reluctant to Discuss Israeli-Palestinian Conflict than Democrats
• Students with More Extreme Ideological Orientation More Open to Discussing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict than Moderates
• When Students Feel That the Campus Climate is Supportive of Viewpoint Diversity, They Are Less Reluctant to Discuss Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The 2023 Campus Expression Survey (CES) asks undergraduate students at four-year colleges and universities in the US about different facets of their experience relevant to open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement. Heterodox Academy has been surveying students on topics of free expression since 2019. 

In this research brief, we look at what the 2023 CES data say about students’ willingness to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus. Note that these data were collected in November and December 2023, and so do not reflect events on campus since data collection. The 2023 CES surveyed a nationally representative convenience sample of full-time college undergraduates at four-year colleges and universities within the US. Survey respondents were recruited online using stratified sampling via CloudResearch.

At the close of the survey period, we received responses from 5,009 survey takers. After removing incomplete or potentially suspicious responses, we restricted our analyses to data from 4,730 respondents. Research reports derived from the CES are exploratory and descriptive in nature.