Bureau of Disruption

All schools · Ivy League

Princeton University

Princeton University's course descriptions average 68.3 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Princeton University reads 0.7 points further left.

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)
Princeton University: 68.3 (likely range 66.8 to 69.8) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

10%Far left92–100
39%Left75–91
38%Center-left59–74
10%Center42–58
1%Center-right26–41
2%Right9–25
<1%Far right0–8
199 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

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Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.

Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.

Furthest-left subjects

AAS 327 · Designing Reparations100

Ethnic & African American Studies

This course addresses reparations as a matter of design. Aside from matters of economics, history, or policy, engaging with reparations requires multiple environmental epistemologies. This course pursues a transcalar and interlocking…

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ANT 521 · Topics in Theory and Practice of Anthropology (Half-Term): Monstrosity & Colonialism100

Anthropology

This course brings together writings on slavery, colonialism, and genocide to explore the epistemological, necropenological, and politico-economic conditions mobilized to render a condition of 'non-humanity' of those 'otherized' by…

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COM 589 · Contemporary Latin American Feminisms and the Question of Justice and Accountability100

English & Comparative Literature

This course focuses on how the renewed analysis of a relationality among different violences generated by popular feminisms impact our understanding of justice and accountability. Taking the crossings between social reproduction and prison…

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Furthest-right subjects

GSS 457 · Why Weimar Now? Material Culture and Historical Analogy0

Women's & Gender Studies

"Weimar" stands in for a potential that was lost, for the problem of revolution and reaction. A century after the Weimar Republic's apex, we first pick up on the negative political analogy between pre-fascist Weimar and our time: the U.S.…

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HIS 360 · The Russian Empire: State, People, Nations17

History

This is a survey of the history of Russian multinational empire from the late 1600s to the Revolution of 1917. Students will learn how the Russian Empire expanded, and why it collapsed in 1917. Special attention will be paid to the history…

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POL 353 · The Politics of Modern Islam22

Political Science

This course examines the political dimensions of Islam. This will involve a study of the nature of Islamic political theory, the relationship between the religious and political establishments, the characteristics of an Islamic state, the…

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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 66.8 to 69.8; 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.
Princeton University by department (share of courses described from the left)
DepartmentLeft-framed shareCourses
Women's & Gender Studies42.4%33view
Ethnic & African American Studies40%50view
Anthropology35.1%57view
Sociology25%44view
English & Comparative Literature10.6%161view
History9.9%121view
Art & Art History7.8%115view
Religious Studies6.7%60view
Political Science4.2%95view
Philosophy2.9%34view
Economics2.4%83view
Psychology2.1%47view

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
NameMetricValue95% intervalnscored
Princeton Universitymean_bias_score68.366.8 – 69.8900116
All 100 schoolsmean_bias_score67.567.4 – 67.7124,29010,124
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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