The Academic Mind at the Top: The Political Behavior and Values of Faculty Elites

Comparison of the findings from a 1979 sample of faculty membersof the honorific academies and a 1977 national survey of Americanprofessors indicates that the former are more liberal politicallythan the latter, including those at the most distinguished institutions.This result is in line with a body of theory which suggeststhat intellectual creativity is associated with critical socialviews, and with earlier research which found that scholarlystatus among faculty generally is correlated with liberal politicalorientations. The relationship inverts, however, for questionsbearing on the self-interest of academic achievers both withinand outside of the university.