The urge some students feel to self-censor is complicated. Lara Schwartz, the director of the Project on Civil Discourse at American University, has been following this phenomenon for years and has some theories. First, she believes that the pundits and politicians who decry speech suppression are actually promoting the problem. For many years, she told me, she has asked students about their views on campus expression. More and more, her incoming freshmen “arrive on campus believing that there is a free-speech crisis, some illiberal consequence culture that might—that probably does—exist.” It’s concerning to liberal and conservative students alike, she added, “because they want to make sure they’re exposed to all kinds of opinions.”

Second, thought leaders don’t appreciate the culture shock that many Gen Z college students experience when they first arrive on campus. Often, “the communities we live in are far more homogeneous, less diverse both ideologically and racially, and economically, than colleges are,” Schwartz told me. So students have little experience engaging deeply with people who challenge their ideas. She added that high schools don’t usually teach students how to talk across differences. “​​Many students arrive at college … not really knowing If I speak my mind, how will people react socially?” she said.

Finally, Gen Z brings a unique—if largely untested—set of values to campus. According to a Knight Foundation study conducted in 2019, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 full-time college students, a significant majority of today’s undergraduates say that it’s not just free speech but also inclusion that is fundamental to a healthy democracy.