Poll: Over One in Five College Students Say America Deserved 9/11

Most Undergrads Disagree America Deserved 9/11, but an Unsettling 22% Agree

Twenty-five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, more than one in five American college students (22%) agreed with the statement “America deserved September 11th.” Every student surveyed was under 25, so none was old enough to remember that day firsthand.

Most students pushed back hard. Nearly 72% disagreed, including about 63% who disagreed strongly, according to the 2026 National Undergraduate Student Survey from the Buckley Institute. The question was new this year, so no earlier results exist to show whether 22% is a jump or a long-running baseline.

Agreement ran higher than the 22% overall in some groups: 28% among students who call themselves liberal and 33% among those who said they would rather live under socialism than capitalism, compared with 18% of students who preferred capitalism. Lauren Noble, the Buckley Institute’s founder and executive director, said in a press release that students who have swung toward socialism are “more likely to support shout downs, violence to stop hate speech, and other tools of censorship.”

2026 Survey of 803 College Students Covered Every Class Year and Region

Inquire LLC conducted the poll between September 5 and 14, 2026. It reached 803 full-time students at four-year colleges, all under 25, from freshmen through seniors. About 70% attended state schools and 30% attended private ones, and students came from all four major regions of the country.

Women made up 55% of respondents and men 44%, with about 1% identifying as something else. Roughly half (51%) were white, 24% Hispanic, 14% Black, and 7% Asian or Pacific Islander. Politically, 52% described themselves as liberal, 29% as moderate, and 13% as conservative, while the rest declined to say.

Students rated each statement on a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. On the 9/11 line, about half of those who agreed did so strongly, and 6.5% were unsure. In all, roughly 175 of the 803 students agreed in some form.

Students Who Back Violence Against Hate Speech Are Likelier to Say America Deserved 9/11

Views on speech were tied to the 9/11 answer. Forty-five percent of students agreed that physical violence can be justified to stop what they see as hate speech, matching a record high for the survey. Among those students, 41% also said America deserved 9/11. Another 40% agreed that offensive speech should face criminal prosecution, the highest share in the three years that question has been asked. And 46% said it is sometimes appropriate to shout down or disrupt a speaker on campus.

Support for free speech in principle also stayed high. Roughly 87% said the First Amendment still needs to be followed and respected, and 66%, the highest on record, agreed that hate speech is technically protected by it. Even among students who said violence can be justified to stop hate speech, 72% agreed that such speech is protected. In other words, many students who see hate speech as legally protected still say violence can be justified to stop it.

Students were also asked about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college last year. A majority, about 54%, chose the statement that nobody should be killed for political beliefs, regardless of how someone feels about his rhetoric. Another 26% said his “rhetoric was harmful and threatening to many people” and that “It should not be a surprise that his words had consequences.”

Opinions of other countries were linked to the 9/11 answer as well. Among students with a favorable view of Iran, 49% agreed that America deserved 9/11, more than double the overall rate. The figure was 41% among those favorable toward Russia and 32% among those favorable toward China.

College Students Favor Socialism Over Capitalism, 42% to 28%

Asked which economic system they would rather live under, 42% chose socialism and 28% chose capitalism, the widest gap in the five years the question has been asked. Another 31% were unsure. Even business majors leaned toward socialism, 38% to 27%. A separate question found 47% saying socialist countries like Cuba and the Soviet Union offer a better economic model than capitalist ones like the United States, while 33% disagreed.

22% of College Students Say America Deserved 9/11, but No Trend Data Exists Yet

Views of America itself were mixed. About 65% said they are proud to be American, ranging from 62% of liberal students to 86% of conservatives, while liberal students rated Palestine more favorably than the United States, 64% to 59%. Half of students (50%) chose the statement that America is “inextricably linked to white supremacy,” versus 39% who said the country is moving forward.

A poll captures what students said, and the results cannot show what they meant. Agreeing with a one-line statement could reflect moral judgment, anger at American foreign policy, or a wish to provoke. At more than one in five, though, the figure is too large to dismiss as a handful of outliers, and the next survey will show whether it is growing.

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Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only. Survey results reflect what respondents said at one point in time, show association rather than cause, and should not be read as conclusive evidence about all college students.

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