History
This course examines the development of communism, one of the most powerful ideologies to have developed in modern history. This course first explores the writings of Marx and his advocates, notably Engels and Lenin, in order to understand…
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Pennsylvania State University-University Park
Pennsylvania State University-University Park's course descriptions average 67.1 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Pennsylvania State University-University Park reads 0.4 points further right.
Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)
Where its courses fall
5%Far left92–100
36%Left75–91
41%Center-left59–74
12%Center42–58
1%Center-right26–41
1%Right9–25
6%Far right0–8
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
Political Science
Background, organization, and operation of the Communist Party and the government of the Soviet Union.
Political Science
Analysis of major problems and key works in the Marxist and Socialist tradition; dialectical materialism, alienation, class warfare, etc.
Furthest-right subjects
Ethnic & African American Studies
A course examining the South African government's policy of apartheid: its history, why it exists, how it works, and the prospects for change.
English & Comparative Literature
This class studies how art, literature, film, and other media can help us to gain a perspective on one of the most horrific events in human history, the Holocaust: the genocidal murder of more than six million men, women, and children…
History
This course focuses on the history and historiography of the Holocaust from 1933-1945. In addition to cultivating intellectual skills, such as critical analysis and concise presentation, the primary purpose of this course is to provide an…
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 68.4; 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.
Pennsylvania State University-University Park by department (share of courses described from the left)
| Department | Left-framed share | Courses | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women's & Gender Studies | 68% | 25 | view |
| Ethnic & African American Studies | 45.7% | 81 | view |
| Religious Studies | 25% | 8 | view |
| Sociology | 14.3% | 56 | view |
| History | 8.4% | 131 | view |
| English & Comparative Literature | 6.3% | 237 | view |
| Philosophy | 5.7% | 88 | view |
| Psychology | 5.1% | 79 | view |
| Political Science | 3.8% | 104 | view |
| Art & Art History | 3.5% | 142 | view |
| Anthropology | 2.9% | 70 | view |
| Economics | 0% | 59 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania State University-University Park | mean_bias_score | 67.1 | 65.8 – 68.4 | 1,080 | 110 |
| 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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