This Heterodox Academy data brief draws on its 2023 Campus Expression Survey, an annual national poll of students at four-year U.S. colleges the organization has run since 2019, focusing on the roughly 3,760 “reluctant” respondents (about 79% of the sample) who said they hesitate to discuss at least one of ten controversial campus topics. It finds a large gap between fear and experience: over 96% of these students feared some form of social or academic sanction for speaking up, while only about 13% reported actually experiencing one, a pattern the report cites as evidence colleges should do more to encourage open dialogue.