Historical Roots and Psychology of Liberals, Conservatives

Source: Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

We live in polarizing times. It's tempting to see the great political divide between liberals and conservatives as a recent phenomenon. A brief look at the historical roots of liberalism and conservatism shows that these conflicts began generations ago. Modern psychological research offers some understanding of these divergent ways of thinking. It helps to view these differences from the perspective of a parable.

The Blind Men and the Elephant

The parable of the blind men and the elephant appears in the earliest Buddhist writings. Versions of it appear in many religious traditions. In the story, a group of blind men stumble upon a creature they have never met. One holds the elephant's tusk and says, “This is like a spear.” Another man holds the ear and says, “No, you’re wrong. It’s far more like a fan.” Another has the tail and exclaims, “You morons! This creature is like a snake.” Another man rests his palms on the elephant's sides and sighs, “I do not understand how you cannot see this creature is like a wall.” The last blind man, holding the leg of the elephant, exclaims, “None of you make any sense at all. This creature is clearly like a tree.”

Much human conflict stems from the certainty that our way of viewing the world is the one right and true version. We make decisions about our political ideals and values based on our own limited experience. Conservative and liberal perspectives emerged from each founder's life experiences.

Historical Roots

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was an Anglo/Irish member of the British parliament, a prolific writer, and philosopher. His family roots go way back to Anglo/Irish aristocracy. He believed that religion, institutions, and tradition preserved society best. He opposed the Enlightenment values of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Enlightenment ideals of reason and principles were dangerously destabilizing to society, according to Burke. He preferred tradition as the foundation of a healthy society. 20th-century American conservatives embraced Burke's ideas.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) did not have the comfortable relationship with established authority that Burke enjoyed. His mother died when he was nine days old. His father kept getting in trouble and had to flee the country when Rousseau was only 10. Rousseaus’ father also squandered his inheritance. From this rocky relationship with authority, Rousseau argued that the state should be judged by objective standards, not merely followed out of adherence to tradition.

The philosophical founders of liberalism and conservatism were influenced by their unique backgrounds shaped by differences of privilege, power, and relationship to authority and freedom.

Today, algorithms feed our interests and biases to us in a continuous loop. We keep viewing our little part of the elephant until we venture out of our bias-confirming bubbles and listen to those with different perspectives. Often, personality differences shape our behavior.

Personality Differences

Liberals enjoy an openness to new experiences. They like creativity and feel more comfortable with ambiguity, complexity, and nuance. Liberals seek universal values and self-direction. They are more comfortable with change and disorder.

Conservatives prefer stability, tradition, order, and conformity and are uncomfortable with ambiguity. They seek security and view ambiguous faces as more threatening. They value conscientiousness and conformity over change and originality (Mendez, M. F. 2017).

Conservatives have a greater sensitivity to issues of “purity” and have a greater disgust response under certain conditions. Liberals are less sensitive to issues of “purity” and instead use cognitive reappraisals when exposed to disgusting stimuli, which lessens the disgust response (Feinberg, M. et al. 2014).

The Fear/Conservatism Link

Psychological research suggests that liberalism is an aspirational perspective. Humans can aspire to create great things, make progress, and improve society. Where conservatism is more of a defensive style. Humans need security, safety, predictability, and certainty.

A meta-analytic review of 88 studies conducted in 12 countries involving 22,818 participants supports the view that conservatism is a defensive position against fear of uncertainty, disorder, and danger. This literature review showed that motives associated with intolerance of ambiguity and personal needs for order, structure, and closure, and motives associated with death anxiety and system-level threats were positively related to the endorsement of conservative or right-wing positions, parties, and leaders (Jost, J. T. et al. 2017).

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Neuropsychological Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives

Conservatives have a larger right amygdala, suggesting a greater sensitivity to threat and proneness toward caution. Liberals tend to have a larger anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain responsible for detecting errors and processing signals for potential change. These neurological differences may make conservatives prioritize safety and security while liberals prioritize creativity and problem-solving (Mendez, M. F. 2017).

These differences show up in the choice of occupation. Liberals lean toward creative professions, teaching, and the liberal arts, where openness to new ideas is rewarded and encouraged. Conservatives lean toward occupations with clear, measurable outcomes, like accounting, finance, law enforcement, and the military.

Perception vs. Reality

Liberals tend to dominate cultural institutions like entertainment, theater, dance, music, and liberal arts in academia. Conservatives tend to dominate the institutions of power, Wall Street, banks, the military, the judiciary, and law enforcement.

Every time one watches television or social media, it can create a false impression that liberals rule the world. Liberals tend to write the stories, scripts, and music. However, these are not exactly the institutions of power that run the world.

According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans’ political ideology remains at the center-right. More people identify as conservative (36 percent) than liberal (25 percent), and the rest say they are moderate (36 percent).

The perception that progressives are significantly changing the power structures of the country is a distortion of reality. Even so-called “liberal judges” are bound by legal precedent, tradition, and conservative norms.

Bridging the Political Divide

Like the founding philosophers, modern liberals and conservatives come to their views from personal experiences. If you launched from a family of ranchers who enjoyed hunting with Grandpa and got angry about government restrictions on your land, you might be a conservative.

If you were born in a city with college professor parents who encouraged their children to share poetry every night at dinner, you might embrace liberalism.

As the world shifts further right, shaped by fear of cultural and geo-political conflicts, many predictably welcome authoritarian leaders who offer the simple “I’ll fix it” solution.

Yet, we need creative and cooperative multi-disciplinary solutions to solve major problems like climate change, global instability, and resource management.

Many of my therapy sessions address relationship ruptures caused by political differences. Painful separations during COVID restrictions, anti-vaccination arguments, and toxic rhetoric have left festering wounds.

Healing can occur when we listen with the intent to understand. With each piece of the elephant shared, a wider picture emerges.

When I gave drafts of this piece to others to critique, I found it interesting that those who identified as conservative felt it biased toward the conservative perspective. Liberals felt the opposite. We cannot uncouple our perception from our biases until we understand another point of view.

The road to peaceful resolution of conflict requires listening to one another respectfully and allowing our minds to grow. As scary as that sounds, it is the only path to wisdom.