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Political psychologists know a great deal about the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives but not much is known about the psychological characteristics of libertarians, who we can describe as being conservative on economic issues but liberal on social issues, a standing which is a little peculiar in nature if we think about it intuitively.
The research paper I was reading and basing this article on, was documenting libertarian moral psychology, which is distinct from both liberal and conservative moralities.

1. Libertarian Ideology

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Libertarianism traces its origins back to the enlightenment thinkers of the 17th and 18th century who argued that states, laws, and governments exist for the benefit of the people. The individual is the unit of value, and the liberty of the individual is the essential precondition for human flourishing. Libertarianism has historically rejected the idea that the needs of one person impose a moral duty upon others. This is one of the major points on which liberals and libertarians diverged in the 20th century.

2. The Psychological Roots of the Libertarian Ideology

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The most obvious psychological characteristic of libertarian ideology is the value placed on negative liberty as an overriding moral principle. While negative liberty is usually attributed to individual agents, positive liberty is sometimes attributed to collectivities.

“The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”
― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

3. The Research

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In this research, libertarians spoke for themselves. The results of 16 surveys were reported and in which a total of 11,994 self-identified libertarians participated. We show how self-described libertarians differ from self-described liberals and conservatives not just on their moral beliefs, but on a variety of personality measures that, given previous research on the emotional and social origins of moral reasoning, help us to understand why libertarians may hold their unique pattern of moral beliefs.

The researchers made three general predictions:

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• Libertarians will value liberty more strongly and consistently than liberals or conservatives, at the expense of other moral concerns.

• Libertarians will rely upon emotion less – and reason more – than will either liberals or conservatives.

• Libertarians will be more individualistic and less collectivist compared to both liberals and conservatives.

1. Participants and Sampling Considerations

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The analyses presented are based on data from 157,804 participants (45.6% female, median age = 34) who visited YourMorals.org and participated in one or more studies between June 2007 and January 2011. The findings of the paper were not greatly affected by current events as data collection stopped before major world political changes. It is also important to note that only participants who were raised in the United States until at least the age of 14 were included in these analyses.

1. Study 1: Describing Libertarian Morality

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The first prediction was that, compared to liberals and conservatives, the morality of libertarians would be characterized by strong endorsement of individual liberty at the expense of other moral considerations.
Several measures took part in this measure that will be examined one by one in order to reach a convergent validity in the claim.

Moral Foundations Questionnaire

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The Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) measures the degree to which a person relies on each of five moral foundations: harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, in-group/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity.

• Results:
  Libertarians were similar to conservatives on the fairness foundation, as both groups scored substantially lower than liberals. However, like liberals, libertarians scored substantially lower on the in-group, authority, and purity foundations compared to conservatives. Finally, libertarians scored slightly lower than conservatives and substantially lower than liberals on the harm foundation. Convergent results were found using the Moral Foundations Sacredness Scale, which measures endorsement of foundations using a willingness to make tradeoffs.

• Interpretation:
  Libertarians share with liberals, a distaste for the morality of in-group, authority, and purity, characteristic of social conservatives, particularly those on the religious right. Like liberals, libertarians can be said to have a two-foundation morality, prioritizing harm and fairness above the other three foundations. But libertarians share with conservatives their moderate scores on these two foundations. They are therefore likely to be less responsive than liberals to moral appeals from groups who claim to be victimized, oppressed, or treated unfairly. Libertarianism is clearly not just a point on the liberal-conservative continuum; libertarians have a unique pattern of moral concerns, with relatively low reliance on all five foundations.

Schwartz Values Scale

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The SVS consists of 58 statements of values. Participants rate the degree to which each value serves.

• Results:
  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. Libertarians also scored similarly to liberals and slightly lower than conservatives on power. Libertarians departed from liberals and joined conservatives on only one value: universalism, where libertarians were substantially lower than liberals. Libertarians were unique on two values: benevolence, where they scored moderately below the other two groups, and self-direction, where they scored the highest

• Interpretation:
  Once again, we see that libertarians look somewhat like liberals, but assign lower importance to values related to the welfare or suffering of others–the benevolence value. Self-Direction was the most strongly endorsed value for all three groups, but for libertarians the difference was quite large compared to the next most endorsed value, achievement. If libertarians have indeed elevated self-direction as their foremost guiding principle, then they may see the needs and claims of others, whether based on liberal or conservative principles, as a threat to their primary value.

Ethics Position Questionnaire

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The Ethics Position Questionnaire is composed of two 10-item sub-scales measuring moral idealism and moral relativism.

• Results:
  Libertarians score moderately lower than liberals and slightly lower than conservatives on moral idealism. Libertarians score moderately higher than conservatives, and similar but lower than liberals, on moral relativism.

• Interpretation:
  This result is consistent with our findings on the MFQ and Schwartz Values Scale measures, in that libertarians appear to live in a world where traditional moral concerns (e.g., altruism, respect for authority) are not assigned much importance.

Study 1 Summary: What is Libertarian Morality?

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The results suggest that libertarians are a distinct group that places lower value on morality as typically measured by moral psychologists. This is not to say, however, that libertarians are devoid of moral concerns. Contemporary moral psychology has paid little attention to the valuation of negative liberty as a specifically moral concern. Independence may be seen as a pragmatic value. Respecting the autonomy of others may be seen as a way to promote the welfare of individuals, consistent with liberal ideas about positive liberty, rather than as an independent moral construct.

Therefore, our first prediction was strongly supported: libertarians value liberty more strongly and consistently than liberals or conservatives, at the expense of other moral concerns.

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Sources:

• Understanding Libertarian Morality: The Psychological Dispositions of Self-Identified Libertarians
  Ravi Iyer , Spassena Koleva, Jesse Graham, Peter Ditto, Jonathan Haidt
• On Liberty
  John Stuart Mill
• Election Day in Philadelphia 1815
  John Lewis Krimmel

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In a post coming up next week I will be bringing you the results, interpretations of the remaining two studies followed by overall conclusions which are very interesting.

The next parts will cover:

2. Study 2: How Do Libertarians Think and Feel?

3. Study 3: How Do Libertarians Relate to Others?

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If you enjoyed this part make sure you follow me so that you do not miss the rest of the study

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Thank you for reading.
@mehdibca