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University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley's course descriptions average 67.3 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so University of California, Berkeley reads 0.2 points further right.

ShowCompared withDepartments

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)

University of California, Berkeley: 67.3 (likely range 65.8 to 68.9) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

2%Far left92–100

35%Left75–91

42%Center-left59–74

10%Center42–58

3%Center-right26–41

3%Right9–25

5%Far right0–8

250 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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Framing Subject

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

ANTHRO 292 · Experiments in Collaboration and Reciprocal Transformation100

Anthropology

Collaboration in ethnographic praxis on a local and global scale in folkloristics, sociocultural, linguistic, media, and medical anthropology, producing projects grounded in meaningful engagement with communities. Graduate students, working…

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ANTHRO C292 · Experiments in Collaboration and Reciprocal Transformation100

Anthropology

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ETH STD 181AC · Prison Abolition100

Ethnic & African American Studies

This course introduces students to the long history of the prison in the American experience, and does so by engaging ideas, movements, and practices to craft worlds of care and mutuality beyond the harms that the prison produces and…

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Furthest-right subjects

AFRICAM 116 · Slavery and African American Life Before 18650

Ethnic & African American Studies

This course will examine the origins of the African slave trade, and explore political, economic, demographic and cultural factors shaping African American life and culture prior to 1865.

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ASAMST 122 · Japanese American History0

Ethnic & African American Studies

This course will be presented as a proseminar with selected topics in order to give students an opportunity to participate in the dynamics of the study of Japanese American history. Topics include immigration, anti-Japanese racism, labor,…

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HISTORY 112B · Africa: Modern South Africa, 1652-Present0

History

This course will examine three centuries of South African history that account for the origin and development of the recently dismantled apartheid regime. Our aim is to understand the major historical forces that progressively shaped what…

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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 65.8 to 68.9; 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.

University of California, Berkeley by department (share of courses described from the left)

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Women's & Gender Studies	26.3%	57	view
Ethnic & African American Studies	14.1%	290	view
Sociology	12.2%	107	view
History	7.3%	205	view
Anthropology	5.5%	127	view
Art & Art History	4.9%	204	view
Philosophy	3.0%	67	view
Political Science	2.8%	217	view
Economics	1.3%	156	view
Psychology	0.8%	120	view
English & Comparative Literature	0.8%	133	view
Religious Studies	0%	4	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
University of California, Berkeley	mean_bias_score	67.3	65.8 – 68.9	1,687	114
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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