Conservatives and the Academy

Conservatives are under-represented in the university, but it's probably not because of discrimination despite what Horowitz claims. It's mainly self-selection - conservatives for some reason by and large select into other parts of the market. That does raise an interesting question about why political views would slice so strongly on that one dimension, though. In a new paper, a husband and wife team argue that conservatives just aren't interested in academic work. It's basically preference, in other words. Since I hate explanations that are preference-based, I'll secretly mock this, but probably it's right.