Arnold Kling has a different take on the preponderance of left-wing views among humanities professors: self-selection.
People with certain traits tend to choose particular occupations. Someone who is afraid of heights is unlikely to become a firefighter. Someone who is repelled by the sight of blood is unlikely to become a doctor. Someone who is impatient with details is unlikely to become a bookkeeper.A fancy term for this is "self-selection." [...] If your temperament favors freedom without responsibility, then there are certain occupations that are a good fit. Academic life is one of them, as I pointed out in Real World 101. [...] In general, wherever creative individuals receive incomes without having to worry about the "business aspect" of their organizations, you have freedom without responsibility. In print journalism, reporting is kept separate from advertising or circulation. In the arts, commercial success is so difficult to predict that few writers, composers, or actors want to deal with the business aspect of their endeavors.
In software development, there is also tension between the creative side and the business side. Many programmers resent the "suits" (business executives) who impose inelegant requirements or harsh schedules on projects. Programmers who want maximum freedom with minimum responsibility self-select into open source software, where you get to work on the aspects of a project that you find important or interesting, without having to be accountable to a business executive or a novice user.
When we see leftist ideology statistically predominant among college professors, news reporters, or open-source software advocates [FB: the latter, however, include a very vocal Libertairan segment], what we are seeing is self selection. What Richard Florida dubbed The Creative Class is a self-selected group that seeks freedom without responsibility in their professional lives. Thus, we should not be surprised that their ideological bent is toward modern liberalism, which translates this personal preference into a political platform.
[...] Professor Brandon is correct that the academic temperament is suited to the liberal ideology of Freedom Without Responsibility. However, it does not follow that Freedom Without Responsibility should be the model for an entire political and economic system.
[...] Academics should correct for their natural biases by broadening their understanding of alternative points of view and by understanding the larger economic system. Adherence to any ideology, including liberalism, without question or re-examination, is what is really "stupid".
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