University of Virginia social psychologist Jonathan Haidt concluded in a recent study that "standard morality scales do a poor job of measuring (libertarians) one central and overriding moral commitment"- individual rights. It appears that in previous studies, libertarians came off as immoral because they tested low on usual measures of morality- measures on caring, fairness, loyalty, respect, and purity. But researchers found that when they invented another standard, liberty vs tyranny, libertarians scored much higher than liberals and conservatives both.
The study produced a wealth of data regarding liberals, conservatives, and libertarians, but what fascinated me the most was the following passage:
Haidt and his fellow researchers suggest that people who are dispositionally (level 1) low on disgust sensitivity and high on openness to experience will be drawn to classically liberal philosophers who argue for (level 2) the superordinate value of individual liberty. But also being highly individualistic and low on empathy, they feel little attraction to modern liberals’ emphasis on altruism and coercive social welfare policies. Haidt and his colleagues further speculate that an intellectual feedback loop develops (level 3) in which such people will find more and more of the libertarian narrative (satisfactory at explaining things) and begin identifying themselves (even more) as libertarian.
Libertarians are an odd bunch at times, and hopefully you will all take a couple minutes to check out this study and get a better sense of what drives them.
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