The 2023 CES asks 4,730 undergraduate students at four-year colleges and universities in the US about different facets of their experience relevant to open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement.

The key findings of this report are that (1) just over 79% of the 4,730 full-time undergraduate student respondents reported being at least somewhat reluctant to discuss, ask questions about, or share their ideas on at least one of the 10 controversial topics asked about on the CES; and (2) the number of students who reported at least some reluctance to discuss a topic was up to 200% higher in the case of the most controversial topics, relative to a typical course topic.