Political polarization pierces the dorm room

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         By Cyrus Beschloss | cyrus@generationlab.org

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For a while now, political tribalism has trickled into places it ought not trickle: NFL viewership, PTA meetings, and supermarkets, for instance.  

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• Dorms just made the list. 

Each year: Generation Lab and NBC News check in with the college class of 2025 to track shifts, and take their temperature on the top issues of our time:

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• Issues like: Politics, health, trust in leaders, media and government, social issues, job and the economy.

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POLARIZATION

• Roughly half of students say they wouldn't live with someone who supported the opposite 2020 presidential candidate.

  • 62% of Democrats and 28% of Republicans said they wouldn't dorm across the aisle, as did 30% of men and 54% of women.

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OPTIMISM

• Since last year, these students' sense of personal optimism has held, but their national and international optimism has plunged.

  • 86% are optimistic/super optimistic about their personal lives (-6 since 2021).

  • 34% are optimistic/super optimistic about the US (-14 since 2021)

  • 36% are optimistic/super optimistic about the world (-24 since 2021)

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+ MORE 

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Methodology overview

The results from the poll — conducted from a proprietary non-opt-in panel built from a database of every U.S. college and university — were weighted by gender, race and institution type using population statistics from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. (MORE)

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