Liberals have been shown to have a higher level of openness to experience as compared to conservatives.
This speaks to a genetic predisposition in a person’s political leaning, but we needn’t adopt a fatalistic attitude; Gary Marcus (2004) spoke of the “first draft” of the moral mind and believed that “‘Built-in’ does not mean intractable; it means organised in advance.”br/> We can categorise the foundations of morality into 5 distinct channels:
- Harm / care
- Fairness / reciprocity (golden rule)
- In-group / loyalty
- Authority / respect
- Purity / sanctity
All 5 are important to conservatives, but amongst liberals there a greater weight is placed on harm and fairness. This is a reason a balance in ideology is required. For example, with authority there is an entropy of co-operation as the reliance falls on purely altruistic giving. This can be reversed with introduction of punishment to bring deviants in line. Liberals and conservatives are yin and yang and with either removed or suppressed the balance shifts away from the ideal - dichotomous thinking is a cognitive distortion to be avoided.

If you want truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between “for” and “against” is the minds worst disease.

Sent-ts’an, 700 C.E.