POLITICSto new experiences or how self-disciplined he is. American
psychologists divide personality into five domains, while the
British prefer three. Either way, when a scientist focuses on
one of the domains, she is measuring only a slice of a per-
son’s personality, not the whole person. Consider two nurses
who both have high compassion scores. At first glance, one
might imagine two similar people. But there are other per-
sonality domains as well. One nurse might be outgoing and
emotional, while the other is introverted and restrained.
Even though nurses may have some personality features in
common, they are a group made up of unique individuals.
Another limitation of personality measurements is that
scientists usually report a group’s average score. So if a
study finds that liberals are more risk-taking than conser-
vatives, it’s likely that within that group of liberals there are
some who are safety-seeking. Studies of personality help us
predict what a group of people will do, but they are less
helpful in predicting what an individual will do.PROGRESSIVES IMAGINE A BETTER FUTUREThe characteristics the study eventually associated with liberals—
risk-taking, sensation-seeking, impulsivity, and authoritarianism—are
the characteristics of elevated dopamine.^1 But do dopaminergic people
1 In fact, a group of scientists from the Institute of Psychiatry in London found that
dopamine receptors were crowded together more tightly in the brains of people
with high P scores compared to those with lower scores. Dense receptor pack-
ing led to stronger dopamine signals, which in turn led to the emergence of the
distinctive personality features. The connection is also seen when we look at what
P stands for: Psychoticism. High P scores are a risk factor for the development of
schizophrenia. That doesn’t mean that all liberals are at risk for becoming psychotic,
but many of them share things in common with highly creative people, who some-
times do tip into the realm of psychosis.