Blog Home RSS. Email Signup Sign up to have blog posts delivered straight to your inbox! Banking and Finance. Constitutional Law. Criminal Justice. Defense and Foreign Policy. Free Speech and Civil Liberties. Global Freedom. Government and Politics. Health Care. Monetary Policy. Poverty and Social Welfare. Public Opinion. Tax and Budget Policy. A number of prominent thinkers are associated with libertarian ideas, from economists to philosophers. Below are just a few of the key figures associated with libertarian and classical liberal ideas on individual liberty and economic freedom.
Learn more about libertarian thinkers and big ideas through short videos on Learn Liberty. At IHS, we believe in the power of freedom to create a more just, peaceful, and thriving future. James Madison. Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Paine. Isabel Paterson. Rose Wilder Lane. Ayn Rand. Ludwig von Mises. Milton Friedman. It is noteworthy that differences between liberals and conservatives were generally small except toward generic others. Libertarians were the outliers.
Further, we wanted to relate these factors to value clusters from Study 1. Principal component analysis using the Individualism-Collectivism Scale, Identification with All Humanity Scale, and Different Types of Love Scale was conducted on participants who completed all three measures.
The scree plot [49] indicated a 2 factor solution was appropriate, including a group of broad connection, more universalist oriented variables e. Factor loadings for all variables in Study 3 are listed in Table 6.
Figure 6 , using standardized factor scores extracted for each participant, shows that libertarians have both lower levels of broad social connection and lower levels of tight social connection. Of these participants, also completed the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. Factor analyses indicate that the variables in Study 3 can be grouped into measures of tight social connection and measures of broad social connection.
Libertarians score lower on both of these factors Figure 6. If we relate Moral Foundation Questionnaire variables to these factors, we find that the values that typify liberals MFQ-harm and MFQ-fairness relate to this first factor, while the values that typify conservatives MFQ-authority, ingroup, and purity relate to this second factor. As predicted, libertarians in our sample appeared to be strongly individualistic. Compared to liberals and conservatives, they report feeling a weaker sense of connection to their family members, romantic partners, friends, communities, and nations, as well as to humanity at large.
While liberals exhibit a horizontal collectivistic orientation and conservatives a vertical collectivistic orientation, libertarians exhibit neither type of collectivism, instead displaying a distinctly individualistic orientation. This relative preference for individualism may have been moralized [10] into the value orientation found in Study 1. Libertarians' weaker social interconnectedness is consistent with the idea that they have weaker moral intuitions concerning obligations to and dependence on others e.
Moral Foundation Questionnaire scores. Their distaste for submitting to the needs and desires of others helps explain why libertarians have very different ways of relating to groups, consistent with their lower endorsement of values related to altruism, conformity, and tradition in Study 1, providing convergent evidence for the idea that moral judgment is tightly related to social functioning. While not all libertarians endorse the views of Ayn Rand, our findings can be summarized by the three quotations we have presented from her work.
Libertarians scored relatively high on just one moral concern: liberty. The libertarian pattern of response was found to be empirically distinct from the responses of liberals and conservatives, both in our cluster analysis of participants and in our principal components analysis of measures.
We found strong support for our first prediction: Libertarians will value liberty more strongly and consistently than liberals or conservatives, at the expense of other moral concerns. This lack of emotional reactivity may underlie an indifference towards common moral norms, and an attraction to an ideology where these moral codes are absent, libertarianism.
The only emotional reaction on which libertarians were not lowest was reactance — the angry reaction to infringements upon one's autonomy — for which libertarians scored higher than both liberals and conservatives. This disposition toward reactance may lead to the moralization of liberty and an attraction to an ideology that exalts liberty above other moral principles — namely, libertarianism. We also found that libertarians showed a strong preference for and enjoyment of reasoning higher on utilitarianism, need for cognition, systemizing, and a greater likelihood of answering correctly on the cognitive reflection task.
We introduced Study 3 with Rand's condemnation of love that is not based on a strong sense of self. We found that libertarians do indeed have a strong sense of self and the self's prerogatives, and a correspondingly lower sense of attachment to others. They exhibit a high degree individualism, a low degree collectivism, and generally report feeling less bonding with others, less loving for others, and less feelings of a sense of common identity with others.
Libertarians have a lower degree of the broad social connection that typifies liberals as well as a lower degree of the tight social connections that typify conservatives. These social preferences were related to their moral attitudes suggesting that libertarians have less functional use for moral concerns. We found strong support for out third prediction: Libertarians will be more individualistic and less collectivist compared to both liberals and conservatives.
The current research extends past comparisons between liberals and conservatives to a third ideological group — libertarians. Our findings are consistent with the emerging view that personality plays a crucial role in the formation of ideology.
As is the case with liberals and conservatives [3] , libertarian ideological identification is characterized by specific moral concerns, a level 2 characteristic adaptation in McAdams' [23] model of personality. But why do people develop differential preferences for specific moral concerns?
Both McAdams' more general theory and recent theory specifically concerning the development of moral reasoning [8] posit that these constructs are often related to and constrained by level 1 traits; for example, previous research has shown that people who are dispositionally high on openness to experience are more likely to develop liberal values [1] , whereas people who are dispositionally high on disgust sensitivity are more likely to develop conservative values [14].
Further, consistent with widely tested theories of motivated reasoning [26] , people are likely to moralize their preferences [10] , especially their social preferences, given the interplay between social functioning and moral reasoning [30] , [33]. The current research not only describes an important ideological group, but also tells a coherent story about how and why some people become libertarians while others become liberals or conservatives.
While we cannot establish causality with our correlational data, we can see several cross-level links of the sort described by McAdams and Pals [35] and modeled by Lewis and Bates [9]. People who are dispositionally more at level 1 open to new experiences and reactant are more likely to find themselves drawn to some classically liberal philosophers such as John Stuart Mill and classically liberal values and ideals such as the superordinate value of individual liberty, at level 2.
But if these same people are also highly individualistic and low on empathic concern — if they simply feel the suffering of other people less — then they might feel little emotional attraction to modern liberalism's emphasis on altruism and positive liberty, and turned off by its willingness to compel some citizens to help other citizens through redistributive tax policies.
When they first encounter libertarian philosophy or read an Ayn Rand novel or hear a Ron Paul speech , they find an ideological narrative level 3 that resonates with their values and their emerging political likes and dislikes level 2. They begin identifying themselves as libertarians, which reinforces their moral beliefs.
They find it easier to reject statements endorsing altruism or group loyalty or respect for authority than they would have before having discovered libertarianism and its rationalist, individualist ethos. A related way to describe the links between personality and morality is found in Rozin's [10] description of the moralization of preferences. Libertarians' preferences about how to live their lives may have been transformed into a moral value — the value of liberty — in the same way that vegetarians have been found to moralize their eating preferences [78] or non-smokers moralize their aversion to smoke [79].
From a social intuitionist perspective [8] , this process is no different from the psychological comfort that liberals attain in moralizing their empathic responses e.
For those who self-identify as libertarian in our sample, their dispositional and motivational profiles all point toward one supreme moral principle: individual liberty.
The current research examined a specific ideological group in the United States, but just as research on other distinctive groups such as patients with brain lesions [30] or psychopaths [80] has been generative for understanding morality more broadly, so too do we hope that the current research is generative for researchers seeking to understand political processes in diverse socio-demographic contexts.
The current research, convergent with basic research on the intuitive origins of moral judgment [8] , suggests that similar patterns may be found in other groups that favor less government involvement in both social and economic matters, such as the Free Democratic Party of Germany, which advocates reduced economic regulation, greater privacy, and increased rights for homosexuals. Even in countries without a political identity that mirrors American libertarianism, there are likely to be individuals who reject policies driven by empathy for the poor or promotion of tradition, and those individuals may exhibit some of the same dispositional traits that are characteristic of libertarians in the US context, such as a desire for solitude and a preference for rational over emotional experience.
However, without the reinforcing characteristics of a narrative that can bring coherence to these dispositions [36] , these individuals may not have had adequate opportunity to moralize their preferences [10] , and may therefore be more likely to be politically apathetic [81]. This set of studies has two main limitations: our findings rely almost exclusively on self-report measures, and our sample is not representative of the general population.
Our reliance on self-report measures is partially mitigated by the fact that we used diverse measures that converge on an extremely consistent picture of libertarianism.
The fact that libertarian performance on the Cognitive Reflection Task and their responses to classic moral dilemmas converges with libertarian self-report of their cognitive and emotional style also mitigates some of this concern. Because so little has been written about libertarian psychology, we believe that our very large set of self-report measures is an important first step in characterizing libertarian psychology upon which more methodologically advanced work can build [16].
We hope that this research will inform future researchers who will undoubtedly investigate the relationships we have found using more experimental, behavioral, implicit, and even neuropsychological methods. Our use of a volunteer internet sample means that we must be cautious in generalizing our findings to the broader population.
Since sub-sample analysis uses implicit browser referrer information that is technically difficult to fake, we can be confident that our results are not the result of any systematic deception by participants. In addition, many of our ancillary findings replicate previous research e.
Finally, findings based on the yourmorals. Our sample, while far more diverse than most college samples [83] , has specific characteristics that reduce the generalizability of this research. The sample tends to be more politically aware, educated, white, and liberal than a representative U. This reduces the likelihood of confounds due to race or education, but also means that it remains an open question whether the relationships found would hold within a less educated or more racially diverse group.
In addition, political and moral differences are likely more salient in the context of our website, meaning that effect sizes may be increased in this setting. The mean values for libertarians in our sample are likely quite different than the mean values for these measures if we were able to examine the population as a whole.
However, whereas the mean values derived from our dataset may differ from national averages, the relationships between variables in our dataset have been found to be comparable to nationally representative samples [84]. Our use of a volunteer internet sample gave us at least three benefits in terms of data quality.
First, because volunteers are often more educated and motivated, such samples often show less random measurement error, less survey satisficing, and less social desirability bias compared to nationally representative samples [85] — [87].
Second, unlike many surveys conducted by telephone, we were able to use full and well-validated scales to measure each construct, rather than relying on just one or two items. And third, because nationally representative samples are expensive to procure, they rarely involve more than 2, respondents. While our sample represents a large number of libertarians, it may or may not represent the majority. Not withstanding our cluster analysis in Study 1, libertarianism may also be studied as a dimension that an individual may endorse to varying degrees rather than as a discrete kind of person, which may be one of the reasons that national surveys typically do not measure identification as libertarian.
William James [88] felt that he could best study the human experience of religion by studying its extreme forms. Our sample may be taken from one end of the libertarian dimension, specifically those who are willing to take the psychological step of self-identifying specifically as libertarian.
Libertarianism may be a dimension that may exist in both liberals and conservatives to varying degrees, as both liberals and conservatives endorse liberty as a moral value in different domains.
In learning about this group of individuals, perhaps we can learn something about the forces that push all individuals towards or away from endorsing liberty as a moral end. Political and social psychologists often study ideology on a unidimensional liberal-conservative spectrum, but the real world is clearly more complex. As psychologists advance in studying the personality traits associated with liberalism and conservatism, our findings confirm the value of this approach and extend its reach by describing a heretofore-neglected yet politically important group — libertarians.
Libertarians have a unique moral-psychological profile, endorsing the principle of liberty as an end and devaluing many of the moral concerns typically endorsed by liberals or conservatives. Although causal conclusions remain beyond our current reach, our findings indicate a robust relationship between libertarian morality, a dispositional lack of emotionality, and a preference for weaker, less-binding social relationships. These findings are consistent with previous research on the dispositional origins of moral judgment.
By focusing on one understudied ideological group, the findings provide further evidence concerning the closely intertwined nature of personality, values, and political ideology. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. PLoS One. Published online Aug Liane Young, Editor.
Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Received Feb 7; Accepted Jul 5. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Libertarians are an increasingly prominent ideological group in U. Libertarian Ideology Modern libertarians are attitudinally diverse, but all types of libertarianism trace their origins back to the enlightenment thinkers of the 17 th and 18 th century who argued that states, laws, and governments exist for the benefit of the people.
The Psychological Roots of the Libertarian Ideology The most obvious psychological characteristic of libertarian ideology is the value placed on negative liberty as an overriding moral principle, as can be seen in this quote concerning a law outlawing online gambling, from U.
Congressman Ron Paul [20] , the most libertarian contender in recent times for the nomination of a major political party: The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions.
The Current Research In this paper, we let libertarians speak for themselves. We begin with three general predictions. Methods Participants and Sampling Considerations The analyses presented are based on data from , participants Overall Design Our main dependent variable is political self-identification, which we use to compare ideological groups within each specific study.
Open in a separate window. Table 2 Means and Cohen's d-scores for measures in Study 1. Table 3 Means and Cohen's d-scores for scales in Study 2. Table 4 Means and Cohen's d-scores for scales in Study 3. Results and Discussion Study 1: Describing Libertarian Morality If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.
Results The first five rows of Table 2 show d scores indicating how libertarians differed from liberals and conservatives on the MFQ also see Figure 1. Figure 1. Libertarians have weaker intuitions about most moral concerns, but stronger intuitions about liberty.
Interpretation Our results suggest why libertarians do not feel fully at home in either of the major American political parties. Results Table 2 shows that libertarians are similar to liberals on most values, scoring moderately higher than conservatives on hedonism and stimulation, and substantially lower than conservatives on conformity, security, and tradition. Ethics Position Questionnaire The Ethics Position Questionnaire [44] is composed of two item subscales measuring moral idealism and moral relativism.
Results Table 2 shows that libertarians score moderately lower than liberals and slightly lower than conservatives on moral idealism. Results Table 2 shows that libertarians scored moderately lower than liberals and substantially lower than conservatives on the self-relevance of moral traits. Interpretation The results suggest that libertarians are less likely to see moral traits as important to their core self, compared to liberals and conservatives.
Results Table 2 shows that libertarians scored highest on both kinds of liberty also see Figure 1. Interpretation Libertarians are not unconcerned about all aspects of morality, as suggested by their scores on the MFQ and several other widely used morality scales.
Do libertarians have a unique moral profile? Figure 2. Libertarians are more concerned with liberty values and less concerned with other-oriented and conservative values.
Interpretation The above analyses suggest that libertarians indeed hold an empirically distinct set of values, compared to liberals and conservatives. Study 1 Summary: What is Libertarian Morality? Big Five Personality Inventory The Big Five Personality Inventory [55] is a item measure of five personality traits often said to be the most fundamental traits in personality psychology: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Results Table 3 shows that libertarians scored lower than the other two groups on agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion. Interpretation The libertarian pattern on the Big 5 complements our findings on their explicit values in Study 1. Interpersonal Reactivity Index The Interpersonal Reactivity Index IRI [56] is a item measure of empathy, with 7 items covering each of four distinct aspects of empathic responding to others: 1 empathic concern for others, 2 fantasy, 3 personal distress, and 4 perspective-taking.
Results Table 3 shows that libertarians scored moderately lower than conservatives and substantially lower than liberals on empathic concern for others also see Figure 3. Figure 3. Libertarians report lower emotional responsiveness, but higher levels of psychological reactance. Interpretation According to Davis [56] , low levels of empathic concern indicate lower levels of sympathy and concern for unfortunate others, which may underlie libertarians' lower scores on the harm foundation of the MFQ, and their general rejection of altruism as a moral duty.
Disgust Scale The Disgust Scale Revised [57] , [58] measures individual differences in the propensity to feel disgust toward three classes of elicitors: 1 core disgust animals and body products that pose a microbial threat, such as rats, vomit, and dirty toilets ; 2 animal-reminder disgust corpses, gore, and other reminders that human bodies are mortal, like animal bodies ; and 3 contamination concerns about coming into physical contact with other people. Results Table 3 shows that libertarians scored moderately lower than conservatives and slightly lower than liberals also see Figure 3.
Interpretation Previous research has shown that liberals are less disgust-sensitive than conservatives [14]. Hong Reactance Scale The Hong Reactance scale [60] is an item measure of psychological reactance [61]. Results Table 3 shows that libertarians score slightly higher than liberals and moderately higher than conservatives on psychological reactance also see Figure 3. Interpretation The high levels of reactance expressed by libertarians fit well with the value they place on liberty as a moral foundation.
Figure 4. Libertarians exhibit a reason-based cognitive style according to a variety of measures. Interpretation Research by Baron-Cohen [62] has shown that relatively high systemizing and low empathizing scores are characteristic of the male brain, with very extreme scores indicating autism. Need for Cognition The Need for Cognition scale [64] is a measure of the extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities.
Results Table 3 shows that libertarians scored slightly higher than liberals and moderately higher than conservatives on Need for Cognition also see Figure 4. Interpretation This pattern is consistent with the libertarian valuation of logic and reasoning over emotion. Moral Dilemmas Six moral dilemmas adapted from Greene et.
Results Table 3 shows that libertarians were moderately more utilitarian than conservatives, and slightly more utilitarian than liberals also see Figure 4. Cognitive Reflection Task The Cognitive Reflection Task [66] is a set of 3 logic questions that have correct and intuitive answers. Results Table 3 shows that libertarians find the correct answers to these questions at a slightly higher rate than liberals and moderately higher rate compared to conservatives also see Figure 4.
Interpretation The cognitive reflection task provides a behavioral validation of the hypothesis that libertarians have a more reasoned cognitive style. Do libertarian dispositions lead to libertarian values?
Figure 5. Structural Equation Model showing relationship between libertarian dispositions and values. Individualism-Collectivism The Individualism-Collectivism scale [75] is a item scale that measures an individual's levels of independence vs. Results Table 4 shows that libertarians scored lowest on both forms of collectivism, and highest on horizontal individualism, while matching conservatives on their high scores relative to liberals on vertical individualism.
Interpretation Libertarians appear more individualistic and less collectivistic than both liberals and conservatives. Identification with All of Humanity The Identification with All of Humanity Scale [76] is a item measure of connection to people in one's community, one's country, and the world.
Results Table 4 shows that libertarians are less identified with their community compared to both liberals and conservatives. Interpretation Consistent with the libertarian desire for personal liberty, libertarians feel relatively low levels of connection to their community, country, and people globally.
Different Types of Love scale The Different Types of Love scale [77] is a item measure of loving feelings toward four different groups. Results Table 4 shows that libertarians showed the lowest levels of loving feelings toward others, across all four categories although the difference with conservatives on love for friends was not significant. Interpretation Consistent with the results on the Identification with All of Humanity scale, the libertarian independence from others is associated with weaker loving feelings toward friends, family, romantic partners, and generic others.
Does libertarian individualism relate to libertarian values? Figure 6. Libertarians are less connected to others, including both broad and tight social connections. Interpretation Factor analyses indicate that the variables in Study 3 can be grouped into measures of tight social connection and measures of broad social connection. Conclusions While not all libertarians endorse the views of Ayn Rand, our findings can be summarized by the three quotations we have presented from her work.
Personality and Ideology The current research extends past comparisons between liberals and conservatives to a third ideological group — libertarians. Limitations This set of studies has two main limitations: our findings rely almost exclusively on self-report measures, and our sample is not representative of the general population.
Table 7 Cohen's d-scores by referrer sub-sample. Libertarians vs. Liberals Libertarians vs. Summary Political and social psychologists often study ideology on a unidimensional liberal-conservative spectrum, but the real world is clearly more complex.
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