Nearly 90 percent of respondents to a study on two college campuses said they'd pretended to be more progressive than they really were to increase their odds of social or academic success.

Researchers Forest Romm and Kevin Waldman published an opinion piece for The Hill headlined, "Performative virtue-signaling has become a threat to higher ed" about how students have had to adapt to the left-wing climate of campuses to the point where they effectively camouflage against the liberal herd. Their study, done between 2023 and 2025, conducted 1,452 confidential interviews with undergraduates at both Northwestern University and the University of Michigan.

A resounding 88 percent of respondents replied "yes" to the question, "Have you ever pretended to hold more progressive views than you truly endorse to succeed socially or academically?"

"These students were not cynical, but adaptive," the researchers said. "In a campus environment where grades, leadership, and peer belonging often hinge on fluency in performative morality, young adults quickly learn to rehearse what is safe."

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The researchers argued that many young adults are having to compartmentalize their personalities, with one public-facing persona that adheres to public orthodoxy, and the truer hidden self that questions these dogmas in private to reduce social risk. This aversion to social risk tends to orbit around a key set of issues.

"Seventy-eight percent of students told us they self-censor on their beliefs surrounding gender identity; 72 percent on politics; 68 percent on family values. More than 80 percent said they had submitted classwork that misrepresented their views in order to align with professors," the researchers said. "For many, this has become second nature — an instinct for academic and professional self-preservation."

They also found only seven percent of respondents embraced the idea of "gender as a broad spectrum," with the vast majority (87 percent) supporting a binary model.

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They also purportedly found that "77 percent said they disagreed with the idea that gender identity should override biological sex in such domains as sports, healthcare, or public data — but would never voice that disagreement aloud."

Such dissonance between public persona and private belief extends well beyond academia, however, as these same young people grow wary of expressing themselves even in their personal lives.

"Seventy-three percent of students reported mistrust in conversations about these values with close friends. Nearly half said they routinely conceal beliefs in intimate relationships for fear of ideological fallout," the researchers said. "This is not simply peer pressure — it is identity regulation at scale, and it is being institutionalized."

The researchers faulted "the faculty, administrators, and institutional leaders who built a system that rewards moral theater while punishing inquiry."

Fox News Digital reached out to Northwestern University and the University of Michigan for comment.