State of the Debate || A Few New Statistics on Free Speech

Some new statistics have come out lately which touch on topics we've covered several times,

First, a couple from the new Public Religion Research Institute 2021 American Values Survey.1

The political group most likely to think political violence might be needed “to save our country,” is Republicans at 30%, compared to 11% of Democrats and 17% for Independents. Based on the breakdown PRRI gives, it looks like the group most likely to think this kind of violence is necessary are Republicans who mostly trust far-right news sources. This fits in with other data we've discussed and continues to make the media narrative which focuses on “violence” by left-wing students on college campuses myopic.2

Also unsurprisingly, the vast majority of Americans agree that believing in individual freedoms such as freedom of speech is important to being truly American. There is no noticeable partisan or ideological divide here with 95% of independents, 96% of Democrats, and 98% of Republicans agreeing. This also tracks with statistics we've studied here that support for free speech is widespread; divisions only really emerge when the conversation turns to when it can be justifiably limited.3 Interestingly, and this also tracks with the way we stand out among every other country in our support for free speech, this is the highest rated metric for being truly American among all the other aspects the study measured, above even “believing that every citizen should be able to vote in elections” (though only by 1 percentage point).

Second, a few more from Pew.

Pew Research did some polling of Twitter users. Among their findings is that Republican users of the site are significantly more likely to be bothered that the site bans users and limits the reach/visibility of posts.4 No surprise there, though I'd be curious to see how those numbers change depending on the social media site in question and how they compare to numbers before Trump was banned. Another interesting find is that the percent of people self-reporting that they've experience harassment on the platform is 17% and according to the breakdown they provide this does not really vary among demographic groups.5

Third, all the way back in May of 2020, the Knight Foundation put out a poll with Gallup on college student perceptions on free speech.6 I think it's worth bringing it up since it makes a good contrast with the really bad use of statistics we discussed in the previous post and also because I might have forgotten to talk about it before. Generally, students were very supportive of free speech on campuses, though once again, when you dive into some specifics students draw the line between what ought to be protected in different ways. It doesn't always breakdown as one might expect.

(1) While least supportive of the idea, 57% of Republican students, a decent majority, support establishing safe spaces on campuses.7 62% of Republicans favored colleges restricting speech which is intended to be offensive to certain groups, going up to 78% if the speech is derogatory to people of color.8

(2) 81% of students believe that schools should expose them to “all types of speech.” 9

(3) 53% of Republicans favored colleges banning the display of a “pornographic poster,” which appears to be the only instance where this groups is more likely than others to support restrictions.10

The hysterical media narrative that left-wing college students are being “coddled” and made “risk-averse,” (while also being prone to violence, which is a contradiction I'll never understand why people accept uncritically), finds little support here. Students, broadly, of all groups, support free speech and want to be exposed to different viewpoints by large majorities. In specific cases, such as slurs directed against certain groups, majorities of Republican students, sometimes large majorities, share similar sentiments to their more left-leaning peers. Violence is widely condemned by all. There is at least one area (pornography) where Republican students are more likely than their left-leaning peers to support censorship. There are certainly areas where left-leaning students are more likely to support censorship than their right-leaning peers, but generally those areas of censorship also enjoy substantial Republican support, or don't have a majority of support of students overall. Female and minority students report higher degrees of feeling unsafe or threatened (contra the CSPI study) than right-wing students.

None of this is really surprising to those who have been skeptical of the media narrative that has dominated discussions of free speech on college campuses for the last thirty years. The report authors do make an interesting observation in their conclusion though:

“Most students do agree that the First Amendment protects them, but the strength with which they hold that view varies by subgroup. Students who are less inclined to think the First Amendment protects them — namely, women, racial minorities and Democrats — are more willing to endorse campus policies that impose restrictions on speech.”11

There are probably several good explanations for this correlation, but one we ought to consider is an obvious one that if people feel something protects and supports them, they are more likely to support it. Perhaps instead of mocking students as “snowflakes” or “coddled” or other such alienating ad hominems, perhaps it would be wiser to make cogent arguments as to how, historically, free speech has protected them. Instead of reinforcing the idea that those who support free speech are hostile to diversity and inclusion, we might perhaps, by listening empathetically and being willing to improve our own arguments (including by being open to changing them), we might show that these two ideals are not so often opposed. Rather than adopting an absolutist and uncompromising stance, we might perhaps acknowledge that almost everyone supports at least some restrictions on free speech and that reasonable people can disagree about where those lines should be drawn.

Alright, sorry for the diversion, back to research.

  1. https://www.prri.org/research/competing-visions-of-america-an-evolving-identity-or-a-culture-under-attack/
  2. See, for example, the previous post.
  3. The question only gave freedom of speech as an example of an individual freedom, it was not about free speech specifically, but given that it was the example provided, and the fact it was overwhelming endorsed by everyone, I think one could safely draw this conclusion, especially in context with other evidence.
  4. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/11/15/the-behaviors-and-attitudes-of-u-s-adults-on-twitter/
  5. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/11/15/1-the-views-and-experiences-of-u-s-adult-twitter-users/
  6. https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/First-Amendment-on-Campus-2020.pdf. Compare the methodology of this study, which makes complete sense and is done by a reputable pollster, and the previous one. Here we have a random, representative sample, which is much larger and has a much higher response rate, and additional surveys done through different modes (i.e. over the phone) to test for differences. The survey results are not randomly spliced in with other data which is incomparable, like in the CSPI study. The graphs here actually represent the data gathered, not arbitrarily created values. The data here, which is far better, actively contradicts the poor and clearly manipulated data of the CSPI study. Although I guess we have no choice but to completely ignore Gallup and the Knight Foundation. CSPI declared that its data was undeniable, even “triangulated.” Ridiculous. Euclid couldn't make sense of that triangle!
  7. Ibid. Page 31
  8. Page 26
  9. Page 13
  10. Page 27
  11. Page 51