Differing Psychological Definitions of Liberalism and Conservatism: Their Statistical Association with Personality and with Racism

Abstract

One-hundred-thirty-seven participants were administered the Psychotemporal Survey of Ideologies (PSI), which yielded scores on six scales: a “visionary liberalism focused on the future” scale, a “pragmatic liberalism focused on the present” scale, a “guilt-ridden liberalism focused on the past” scale, a “dread-ridden conservatism focused on the future” scale, a “pragmatic conservatism focused on the present” scale, and a “nostalgic conservatism focused on the past” scale. These six PSI scores were correlated with “big five” personality dimensions on the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R); plus, scores on the Sexual-Racial Double-Standard Test (S-RD-ST) were regressed over the six PSI scores. A significant positive correlation between PSI “guilt-ridden liberalism focused on the past” and NEO PI-R neuroticism indicated that neuroticism is associated not with liberalism in general but with “liberal guilt”. A significant negative correlation between PSI “pragmatic conservatism focused on the present” and NEO PI-R openness indicated that openness is not positively correlated with liberalism but is negatively correlated with one definition of conservatism. A significant positive correlation between PSI “nostalgic conservatism focused on the past” and NEO PI-R conscientiousness indicated that conscientiousness is associated not with conservatism in general but with one definition of conservatism. S-RD-ST-measured prejudice disfavoring African-American women and favoring white men was associated with PSI “dread-ridden conservatism focused on the future,” whereas prejudice favoring African-American women and disfavoring white men was associated with “visionary liberalism focused on the future.” These findings show that surveying and scaling the PSI“s three psychotemporal definitions of liberalism and its three psychotemporal definitions of conservatism, instead of simply treating liberalism and conservatism as opposite ends of an ideological continuum, constitute a fruitful approach to understanding political ideologies and their relationship to other variables such as personality dimensions and racial biases.