Month: November 2023

While liberals tend to view conservatives as cold-hearted, rule-bound, and self-interested, right-wingers often consider left-wingers irrational, sensitive, and destructive. Both characterizations, are, of course, exaggerations, and they fail to recognize the political common ground of human empathy and compassion.

In the far-off days before he was famous, Jordan Peterson, along with some colleagues, published research showing that personality traits strongly predict political belief. According to the study, left-wingers tend to be higher in traits related to compassion and the desire for equality, while right-wingers tend to be higher in traits related to orderliness and concern for social norms. While no one’s political beliefs are predetermined merely by psychology, temperament may dispose an individual toward a certain political position. This is especially helpful to remember when trying to understand people with differing political beliefs from one’s own.