Survey finds most students disagree with woke views but are reluctant to admit it.

Aug 15

A survey of 1,453 students in the US found high levels of compliance with woke views. The key findings of the survey were that:

88% of students said they had pretended to hold more progressive views in order to succeed socially or academically, and over 80% submitted classwork that misrepresented their views in order to align with professors.
87% identified as exclusively heterosexual and supported a binary model of gender. However,
78% said they self-censor regarding gender identity, and
77% said gender identity shouldn’t override biological sex in sports, healthcare, or public data — but would never voice that disagreement aloud.
73% were mistrustful of revealing these values to close friends, and nearly half routinely conceal beliefs in intimate relationships.
72% said they self-censor regarding politics.
68% said they self-censor regarding family values.
38% described themselves as “morally confused,” uncertain whether honesty was still ethical if it meant exclusion.

These findings paint a painful picture of students who pretend to each other they hold views that most of them don’t really agree with, in order that – paradoxically - they don’t fall out with each other for holding the wrong views. They also feel the need to express views they don’t agree with for fear of getting a bad grade.

I am reminded of the passage at the start of the book Knots by RD Laing: “They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game”.

The authors of the survey, which is as yet unpublished in a peer-reviewed journal, express concern at the moral and emotional damage this compliance is inflicting on the students, who are at a critical period of development in their lives: “This split between outer presentation and inner conviction not only fragments identity but arrests its development… Authenticity, once considered a psychological good, has become a social liability.”

Students “pretend to each other they hold views that most of them don’t really agree with, in order that – paradoxically - they don’t fall out with each other for holding the wrong views”.

Many of the students described the experience of participating in the survey as ‘clarifying’: “They weren’t escaping responsibility — they were reclaiming it. For students trained to perform, the act of telling the truth felt radical”.

This survey is not simply about woke views or fitting in. Universities are supposed to be seats of learning, but what students are learning is that fitting in and getting by are more important than discussing ideas and feeling ok about saying what you believe is true. This situation, as the survey authors say, “is unsustainable”. The authors note that universities “often justify these dynamics in the name of inclusion.” But if the majority of students are being excluded, then what does ‘inclusion’ really mean in this context?

It seems that students – and perhaps staff – are being forced to live through a real-life Asch study, influencing them to outwardly comply with views they don’t believe in, and views they might even strongly object to. The cognitive dissonance created must come at some degree of emotional or psychological cost. One wonders if the bulk of the damage is to the male students. A Swedish survey from last year (reported in this interview) found that 60% of women agreed with woke views, whereas 85% of men rejected woke views. It will be interesting to see how much these findings replicate in UK universities.

In my opinion, the finding that students submitted classwork they didn’t really agree with in order to get a good grade is probably a universal experience to some extent, though the magnitude of the gap between what the students believe and what they feel they have to say is probably larger than usual in more woke-influenced fields. Indeed this gap might be so large and normalised it might teach students to have an unhealthy scepticism about academia. It would also be interesting to know whether students of the social sciences feel greater cognitive dissonance than those in subject areas less influenced by woke ideology.

The fact that universities are left-leaning has been recognised for decades, as too has the tendency for compliance to these views. Rob Henderson says that when he started studying psychology at Yale in 2015, another student quietly told him “Whatever people say in public, you’ll usually find that in private their views shift about three notches to the right.” However it could be that the addition of the woke worldview is stretching compliance to its breaking point. One wonders how many of the professors don’t fully believe everything they teach either, which means the students are putting on an act to please the professors, who are also putting on an act. So who then are the true believers, the source of the influence? Probably even the most leading academics have less influence than the senior leadership (provost etc), board of trustees, and Human Resources / Diversity, Equality & Inclusion (DEI) officers.

For students starting university in a few weeks time, or those returning to university, it will be interesting to see how much the façade of compliance remains as firmly intact as it has been in recent years. In the Asch series of studies, compliance fell dramatically when people found they were not isolated in their opinion and had even one ally who shared their views. In these days when we are so connected by the internet and smartphones, it’s difficult to see how students will continue to not begin to realise that most people have been complying with a worldview that most people don’t really agree with.

Further reading

Waldman K, & Romm, F (2025). The Neuropsychological Crisis of Forced Ideological Performance in College Men. Male Psychology (available online https://www.centreformalepsychology.com/male-psychology-magazine-listings/the-neuropsychological-crisis-of-forced-ideological-performance-in-college-men ).

Barry, J (2024). Mindfulness, mental health, and attitudes to critical social justice: Interview with psychologist Dr Oskari Lahtinen. Male Psychology (available online https://www.centreformalepsychology.com/male-psychology-magazine-listings/mindfulness-mental-health-and-attitudes-to-critical-social-justice-interview-with-psychologist-dr-oskari-lahtinen ).

Thomas, V (2022). Woke therapy weakens the client. Male Psychology (available online https://www.centreformalepsychology.com/male-psychology-magazine-listings/woke-therapy-weakens-the-client ).

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