Sociology
This course foregrounds the ways gender, race, class, sexuality, and other dimensions of social differentiation organize our experiences in society and together shape social identities, social interactions, and social institutions.…
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American University
American University's course descriptions average 68.0 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so American University reads 0.5 points further left.
Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)
Where its courses fall
4%Far left92–100
16%Left75–91
73%Center-left59–74
7%Center42–58
0%Center-right26–41
0%Right9–25
0%Far right0–8
Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.
Furthest left
Sociology
This course foregrounds the ways gender, race, class, sexuality, and other dimensions of social differentiation organize our experiences in society and together shape social identities, social interactions, and social institutions.…
History
The Caribbean has been a crucial site of violent colonial displacement, migration, and coercion of peoples from around the globe. It has also witnessed many collectively organized movements of racialized exploited people to challenge their…
Furthest right
None. American University has 72 left-framed courses and not one right-framed course.
Why this number, in plain words
Political lean of course descriptions. Average Framing score (0 = far right, 50 = center, 100 = far left) of the scored courses in the group.
50 is the survey-anchored center of US adults on each issue (the "moderate" place of the ANES/GSS/PRRI seven-label ruler), not the cohort midpoint; scores above 50 read leftward, below 50 rightward.
Counted: courses with a Framing score (categories L/R/B/C). The likely range (95% interval) is 65.9 to 70.2; a comparison whose range overlaps this one is not a reliable difference.
- Most course descriptions carry no political lean at all and are not in this average; the "share described from the left" view counts them.
- Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.
American University by department (share of courses described from the left)
| Department | Left-framed share | Courses | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women's & Gender Studies | 56% | 25 | view |
| Anthropology | 26.9% | 52 | view |
| Sociology | 26.7% | 45 | view |
| Ethnic & African American Studies | 25% | 12 | view |
| Religious Studies | 12.5% | 24 | view |
| English & Comparative Literature | 6.4% | 94 | view |
| Political Science | 5.2% | 153 | view |
| History | 5.1% | 156 | view |
| Philosophy | 3.6% | 55 | view |
| Psychology | 1.2% | 85 | view |
| Economics | 1.1% | 91 | view |
| Art & Art History | 0% | 76 | view |
Lean (mean Framing score) is not published per department within a school; only the left-framed share is. Department rows carry no interval.
Details: exact rows, definitions and method
| Name | Metric | Value | 95% interval | n | scored |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American University | mean_bias_score | 68.0 | 65.9 – 70.2 | 868 | 74 |
| All 100 schools | mean_bias_score | 67.5 | 67.4 – 67.7 | 124,290 | 10,124 |
- Formula
- SUM(bias_score) / COUNT(bias_score)
- Interval
- normal approximation: mean +/- 1.96 * sd / sqrt(n), sample sd (n-1); undefined when n < 2
- Model / prompt / snapshot
- gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
- Metric caveats
- Scored courses only (L/R/B/C); N and I carry no score and are excluded, so n here is smaller than the group's course count. Scores are model readings of catalog description text against a fixed anchored definition, not teaching or syllabi. The interval covers sampling noise in the mean only; it does not represent model reading error. Every value carries a `method` label: exact_rows or histogram_midpoint.
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