Why Americans (Dis)trust Professors: Identity, Stereotypes, and the Case of Religion Professors

Abstract

Americans’ confidence in higher education is falling, almost exclusively among the political and religious right. Though this is typically framed as perceptions of anti-conservative bias among academics, it remains unclear what role group identity, stereotypes, and their interaction play in these evaluations. Has skepticism toward academics become essential to certain identities, independent of what they know of professors? Or do cultural stereotypes about professors play the primary role? How are these factors related? Drawing on insights from social identity theory, and particularly work on identity-protective cognition, I propose Americans’ trust in professors’ work hinges on the intersection of relevant identities and perceptions of professors as identity-threats. I focus on religion professors whose work explicitly addresses salient identities and communities. Analyses of a large, nationally-representative sample reveal salient social identities and perceiving professors in general as unfriendly toward religion are independently associated with distrusting a hypothetical religion professor’s work. Interactions, however, affirm that the influence of either factor (salient social identities or stereotypes about professors as hostile) is contingent on the other. Distrust in a professor’s work thus seems to hinge on whether identities most likely to feel threatened combine with pervasive stereotypes about professors as hostile to such identities.