 As part of a survey of faculty views about academic freedom during the "Second Red Scare", they asked 2,451 professors of social science a large number of questions, and found that about two thirds of these faculty members had been visited by the FBI and had been asked questions about the political beliefs of their colleagues, students, and themselves.They also included a few questions about political party affiliations and recent voting patterns, and reported that there were more Democrats than , 47% to 16%.According to sociologist Neil Gross, the study was significant because it was the first effort to poll university faculty specifically about their political views.