Liberalism: is your political outlook part of your personality?

You are taking a personality test, answering questions about imagination, art and feelings. Then, suddenly, a statement asks whether you see yourself as politically liberal or conservative. Another asks whether we should be tough on crime.

What does politics have to do with personality?

More than you might think, but probably not in the way you expect.

In the Big Five model, this part of the test is called liberalism. It is one of six facets of openness to experience. Despite the name, the facet is not mainly about which party you vote for. It describes a deeper attitude: how ready you are to question authority, convention and tradition, and how comfortable you are with the idea that right and wrong can depend on the situation.

What does liberalism mean?

Psychologists sometimes call this facet psychological liberalism, to separate it from party politics. At one end are people who like to challenge established rules and traditions. At the other end are people who value the stability, security and shared norms that tradition provides.

People who score high often recognise themselves in this:

• You readily question authority and established truths.
• You think rules and traditions should be justified, not just followed.
• You see moral questions as complex rather than black and white.
• You tend to favour reform and change in society.
• You often describe yourself as politically liberal or left-leaning.

People who score low often recognise themselves in this:

• You value tradition, order and clear rules.
• You think established institutions often exist for a good reason.
• You believe some things are simply right or wrong.
• You think breaking rules should have clear consequences.
• You often describe yourself as politically conservative.

Neither end is more correct or more mature than the other. They reflect different priorities, and both have strengths.

The key is not which party you support, but how you relate to authority, tradition and moral certainty.

A word about the word "liberal"

The statements in our test were originally written in English, in an American context. In the United States, "liberal" means roughly centre-left, and "conservative" means right-leaning.

In many other countries, the words mean something else. In much of Europe, "liberal" often refers to support for free markets and individual freedom, which can place a person on the political right. Someone who sees themselves as economically liberal in that sense may therefore answer the statements differently than an American would.

That is worth keeping in mind when you read your score. The facet captures something real, but the words used to measure it are coloured by the culture they come from.

Personality and politics: a real link

There is solid research showing that personality and political views are related.

A study from 2008 combined several methods: personality questionnaires, observations of behaviour in social interactions, and even an examination of people's bedrooms and offices. The researchers found consistent differences between liberals and conservatives, mainly related to two traits: openness to experience and conscientiousness.

In general, liberals were more open-minded, curious and novelty-seeking, while conservatives were more orderly, conventional and organised. The differences were clearest for social issues, less so for economic ones.

A large American study of voters from 2010 confirmed that personality matters, and that the effect of personality on political views could be as large as the effect of education or income. But it also showed that the links differ between economic and social issues, and between groups of people.

Not the same everywhere

Most of this research has been done in the United States. Does it apply elsewhere?

A study from 2017 used data from the World Values Survey in 21 countries on every continent. The main findings about personality and ideology were confirmed. But the effects varied considerably from country to country, and could not easily be generalised across the world.

What it means to be "conservative" or "liberal" depends on what is traditional in your society. In one country, defending tradition may mean defending a strong welfare state. In another, it may mean the opposite.

Is it in our genes?

A study from 2014 combined data from more than 12,000 twin pairs in five democracies, collected over four decades. The researchers found that genetic factors play a role in the formation of political ideology, across almost all the ways it was measured and across the populations studied.

At the same time, they did not find any single gene for political views. The influence, if it exists, seems to come from thousands of genetic variants, each with a very small effect.

This does not mean anyone is born a conservative or a liberal. It means that underlying dispositions, such as how we react to uncertainty, change and rules, can make some views feel more natural to us than others. Upbringing, experiences and the society we live in still matter a great deal.

Liberalism is not the same as morality

One of the statements in the test is about whether there is any absolute right and wrong. It is easy to misread this as a question about how moral you are. It is not.

A well-known study from 2009 found that liberals and conservatives both care about morality, but emphasise different moral concerns. Liberals relied most on care for others and fairness. Conservatives drew on a broader set of concerns more equally: care and fairness, but also loyalty to the group, respect for authority and purity or sanctity.

In other words, a high score on liberalism does not mean you have weaker morals, and a low score does not mean you are rigid or unkind. Honesty and fair play towards others are measured by a different facet, morality, under agreeableness.

Liberalism is also not the same as adventurousness. You can love travel and new food and still value tradition in society, or the other way around.

What does a high or low score mean?

High liberalism

You are quick to question rules, authority and conventions, and you are comfortable with moral grey areas. You may be open to new ways of organising society and sceptical of "this is how it has always been done".

The flip side can be that you underestimate the value of stable institutions and shared norms, or overlook why a tradition came about in the first place.

Low liberalism

You value order, tradition and clear moral lines. You think rules and institutions often carry hard-won experience, and that society works best when people can rely on them.

The flip side can be that you are slower to see when a rule has outlived its purpose, or find it hard to understand people who break with convention.

Both descriptions are about typical tendencies, not rules that hold in every situation.

In everyday life

• At work: High scorers often challenge routines and suggest new ways of doing things. Low scorers often help preserve what works and ensure that rules are followed.
• In relationships: Partners do not always share political views. Differences need not be a problem if both feel respected.
• In discussions: It often helps to remember that the other person is probably not lacking morals, but weighing values differently.
• In society: A society usually needs both: people who push for change, and people who protect what works.

Can liberalism change?

Political views are surprisingly stable. A study from 2020 followed Americans over a large part of their adult lives. Political attitudes were remarkably stable over the long term.

When people did change, however, it was more common to move from liberal to conservative than the other way around. That gives some support to the folk wisdom that people become more conservative with age, though the change is much smaller than the saying suggests.

Major life events, new environments and relationships can still shift how people see the world. And regardless of where you score, it can be useful to:

• Try to describe the strongest version of a view you disagree with.
• Ask what value lies behind a position, not just what position it is.
• Notice whether you react to who says something rather than what they say.

Frequently asked questions

Does a high score mean I vote for a particular party?

No. The facet captures general attitudes to authority, tradition and moral certainty. Many people combine views in ways that do not fit neatly into one party, and the meaning of "liberal" varies between countries.

Why does a personality test ask about politics?

Because attitudes to authority and tradition are a stable part of how people relate to the world, and they are linked to openness to experience. The political statements are a simple, if imperfect, way to capture that attitude.

Is it better to score high or low?

No. Both ends have strengths and weaknesses. Research suggests that people at both ends care about morality, but weigh different values.

How is liberalism measured in the Big Five test?

Our test is based on the IPIP-NEO-120, where each facet is measured with four statements. For liberalism, they are about seeing yourself as mainly politically liberal and believing there is no absolute right and wrong, and, scored in reverse, seeing yourself as mainly politically conservative and believing that we should be tough on crime. Read the score as a sign of a pattern, not as a complete description of you.

Find out where you score

Liberalism is only one of the six facets of openness to experience. You can score low on liberalism and still be high on imagination, artistic interests or intellect.

Take the Big Five test and see your whole profile, with all 30 facets.

Sources

• Carney, D. R., Jost, J. T., Gosling, S. D. & Potter, J. (2008). The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind. Political Psychology, 29(6), 807–840.
• Gerber, A. S., Huber, G. A., Doherty, D., Dowling, C. M. & Ha, S. E. (2010). Personality and political attitudes: Relationships across issue domains and political contexts. American Political Science Review, 104(1), 111–133.
• Fatke, M. (2017). Personality traits and political ideology: A first global assessment. Political Psychology, 38(5), 881–899.
• Hatemi, P. K. et al. (2014). Genetic influences on political ideologies: Twin analyses of 19 measures of political ideologies from five democracies and genome-wide findings from three populations. Behavior Genetics, 44(3), 282–294.
• Graham, J., Haidt, J. & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029–1046.
• Peterson, J. C., Smith, K. B. & Hibbing, J. R. (2020). Do people really become more conservative as they age? The Journal of Politics, 82(2), 600–611.
• Johnson, J. A. (2014). Measuring thirty facets of the Five Factor Model with a 120-item public domain inventory: Development of the IPIP-NEO-120. Journal of Research in Personality, 51, 78–89.