Understanding Libertarian Morality: The Psychological Roots of an Individualist Ideology

61 Pages Posted: 27 Aug 2010 Last revised: 1 Oct 2012

See all articles by Ravi Iyer

Ravi Iyer

University of Southern California

Sena Koleva

New York University; University of California, Irvine - School of Social Ecology; California State University Los Angeles

Jesse Graham

University of Southern California

Peter H. Ditto

University of California, Irvine - School of Social Ecology

Jonathan Haidt

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business

Date Written: August 20, 2010

Abstract

Libertarians are an increasingly vocal ideological group in U.S. politics, yet they are understudied compared to liberals and conservatives. Much of what is known about libertarians is based on the writing of libertarian intellectuals and political leaders, rather than surveying libertarians in the general population. Across three studies, 15 measures, and a large web-based sample (N = 152,239), we sought to understand the morality of selfdescribed libertarians. Based on an intuitionist view of moral judgment, we focused on the underlying affective and cognitive dispositions that accompany this unique worldview. We found that, compared to liberals and conservatives, libertarians show 1) stronger endorsement of individual liberty as their foremost guiding principle and correspondingly weaker endorsement of other moral principles, 2) a relatively cerebral as opposed to emotional intellectual style, and 3) lower interdependence and social relatedness. Our findings add to a growing recognition of the role of psychological predispositions in the organization of political attitudes.

Keywords: morality, libertarians, political psychology, ideology

Suggested Citation

Iyer, Ravi and Koleva, Spassena and Koleva, Spassena and Graham, Jesse and Ditto, Peter H. and Haidt, Jonathan, Understanding Libertarian Morality: The Psychological Roots of an Individualist Ideology (August 20, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1665934 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1665934

Ravi Iyer (Contact Author)

University of Southern California ( email )

Spassena Koleva

New York University

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University of California, Irvine - School of Social Ecology ( email )

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California State University Los Angeles ( email )

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Jesse Graham

University of Southern California ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.usc.edu/grahamlab

Peter H. Ditto

University of California, Irvine - School of Social Ecology ( email )

4312 Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697
United States

Jonathan Haidt

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business ( email )

NYU-Stern School of Business
44 West 4th Street
New York, NY NY 10012
United States

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