Liberals are pointy-headed, creative individualists. Conservatives are money-grubbing family men who don’t care for the “life of the mind.” So goes the conventional wisdom, newly reinforced by an American Enterprise Institute study, “Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don’t Get Doctorates.” The study, Scott Jaschik at Inside Higher Ed reports,

argues that the much debated minority status for conservatives in higher education may be the result of differing priorities of graduating college seniors of different political persuasions. The study presents evidence that conservatives are significantly more likely than liberals — at the point when college students decide whether to apply to graduate school — to value raising a family and having money. In contrast, liberals at that point in their lives are significantly more likely to value writing original works. ...

For starters, the paper finds that conservatives are much more likely to pick majors in professional fields — areas that tend to put students on the fast track for an M.B.A. (or for a job) more than a Ph.D. Only 9 percent of students on the far left and 18 percent of liberals major in professional fields, compared to 33 percent of conservatives and 37 percent of those who identify as being on the far right.

I’m somewhat skeptical of the researchers’ dataset—culled from another of those notorious written student surveys (see it here in pdf, the final page is the relevant one). The authors call for more family-friendly grad student policies, which do seem long overdue. And their conclusion is kind of interesting: 

“Ideology represents far more than a collection of abstract political values,” they write. “Liberalism is more closely associated with a desire for excitement, an interest in creative outlets and an aversion to a structured work environment. Conservatives express greater interest in financial success and strong desires to raise families. From this perspective, the ideological imbalance that permeates much of academia may be somewhat intractable.”

Anyone out there considering a doctorate care to comment?