Reuben also said that she believed the abundance of liberals in academia could be due to the fact that as people become more educated, they tend to become more liberal.

Mansfield, however, said he rejects the “liberals are smarter” hypothesis.

“That is ridiculous,” Manfield said. “All that would mean is that fewer conservatives go to graduate school­, because there are no [academic] jobs for them.”

Mansfield offered another hypothesis for the bluish tint to the ivory tower.

“Multiculturalism crowds out conservatives,” Mansfield said. “They think they’ve done their duty by promoting women and minorities. Once they’re done doing that, they have nothing left for conservatives.”

Rothman said he had not given much thought to Mansfield’s indictment of multiculturalism, but he said that it could “certainly play a role.”

Rothman did not speculate on the political impact this would have on universities, but he said that he hoped to show that unconscious biases may exist in hiring and tenure practices.

“If they can understand that, they can be more self conscious and therefore more fair,” Rothman said.

—Staff writer Sarah E.F. Milov can be reached at milov@fas.harvard.edu.