For many academics this study will be an eye-opener, but not for me. There are certain academic theories, such as right-wing authoritarianism, that suggest that conservatives cannot think as critically as liberals and tend to be more intolerant and dogmatic than liberals. But this study indicates that such theories are likely flawed due to focusing on issues that conservatives care about more than liberals. As it turns out, when asked about issues they care greatly about, progressives can be just as dogmatic, just as unable to think critically, as conservatives.

I am not surprised by the findings of this new study because I conducted a similar study myself, with similar findings. I developed a measure that assessed the degree to which individuals have dehumanizing attitudes towards Christians and, using the measure, found that progressives can be just as bigoted and narrow-minded as conservatives.

But if so, why so much research suggesting this is primarily a problem with conservatives? Given that academics tend to be politically progressive, it is not surprising that when researchers create measures of intolerance, they focus on issues where conservatives are more likely to be intolerant, and ignore issues where progressives are more likely to be intolerant. After all, those issues may be ways the progressive researchers themselves are intolerant. The overwhelming number of progressives relative to conservatives in academia provides an environment where academic mistakes that make progressive look bad are scrutinized much more than mistakes that make conservatives look bad.

This tendency is not because academics are more evil that the rest of the population. Anytime we do not have diversity of thought there is a strong tendency to ignore alternative perspectives. Often people look at science as an objective inquiry. But science always occurs in a given community, and if that community does not have individuals of varying perspectives to hold the dominant interests in check, then we can find ourselves making the type of errors that reinforce our own presuppositions.

The stereotype of the dogmatic, uncritical conservative extends, of course, to conservative Christians. Within academia conservative Christians face more potential rejection than political conservatives. This is why research that is charitable to conservative Christians will face much greater scrutiny than research that criticizes them. It’s not just that some academics have an unreasonable level of Christianophobia. It’s also that there are not enough Christians in academia to challenge these misconceptions.

Given this reality, it is not surprising that Christians often are more skeptical of scientific research than non-Christians. Sometimes this skepticism borders on anti-intellectualism, which we ought to avoid. But conservative Christians are right to be suspicious of research that paints them with unflattering stereotypes. Brad Wright has shown how a lot of those stereotypes do not hold up to sound scholarly scrutiny.

I am not worried that Christians will be fooled by this bad research. Christians know Christians. But I am worried about other people being fooled by it. Even now I often find people who truck in the myth that conservatives are less tolerant than progressives. Academic findings help to shape the cultural beliefs that people rarely question. In this election year, Christians need to remember that if we want to shape ideas for the long-term, we need to work to alter our culture and not just fixate on short-term political wins.

For example, recently there was some bad research supposedly demonstrating that Christians are less generous than nonreligious people. I and other Christians quickly showed how badly flawed the study was. I fear had that not happened, there soon would have been a widespread narrative that Christians are stingy people, despite persistent evidence to the contrary.

Do not underestimate the power of cultural beliefs to promote inaccurate conclusions, or the power of biased studies to shape those culture beliefs. At the same time, do not underestimate the power of Christians to shine a light into dark places given patience, preparation and persistence.