History
Be it sati or enforced widowhood, arranged or love marriage, the rise of national leaders like Indira Gandhi and Kamala Harris, or the obsession with "fair" skin, caste shapes possibilities and perceptions for billions. In this class we…
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Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis's course descriptions average 67.7 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Washington University in St. Louis reads 0.2 points further left.
Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)
Where its courses fall
5%Far left92–100
33%Left75–91
41%Center-left59–74
11%Center42–58
3%Center-right26–41
4%Right9–25
3%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
Anthropology
This course critically explores the past and present struggles of Native Americans against white settler colonialism. We trace connections between U.S. domestic policy and imperialist ideologies, politics, and violent war from the United…
Women's & Gender Studies
Century Black women have been at the forefront of the Black radical tradition since its inception. Oen marginalized in both the scholarship and the popular memory, there exists a long unbroken chain of women who have organized around the…
Furthest-right subjects
History
Segregation: St. Louis in the Long Era of Ferguson. See course listings for current offering. Same as L98 AMCS 3190
History
Genocide Origins, causes, and significance of the Nazi attempt to destroy European Jewry within the context of European and Jewish history. Related themes: the Holocaust in literature; the psychology of murderers and victims, bystanders and…
History
This course surveys the political, social, economic, and cultural forces that have shaped German history since 1800. Aer examining the multiplicity of German states that existed in 1800, we will identify the key factors that resulted in…
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 66.7 to 68.8; 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.
Washington University in St. Louis by department (share of courses described from the left)
| Department | Left-framed share | Courses | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sociology | 55.1% | 49 | view |
| Women's & Gender Studies | 50% | 100 | view |
| Ethnic & African American Studies | 42.0% | 81 | view |
| History | 20.8% | 183 | view |
| Religious Studies | 13.5% | 96 | view |
| Anthropology | 12.4% | 251 | view |
| Political Science | 6.3% | 127 | view |
| English & Comparative Literature | 6.1% | 231 | view |
| Art & Art History | 4.7% | 686 | view |
| Psychology | 3.1% | 64 | view |
| Philosophy | 1.3% | 76 | view |
| Economics | 0% | 50 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington University in St. Louis | mean_bias_score | 67.7 | 66.7 – 68.8 | 1,994 | 253 |
| 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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