Recent research published in journals thinking and reasoning found that a certain type of open-mindedness was a better predictor of sound reasoning than simply identifying as a political liberal. This research suggests that although open-mindedness and liberal ideology often overlap, they are fundamentally different psychological traits. The findings help shed light on how people process information and resist political extremism, regardless of party affiliation.
Actively open-minded thinking is a cognitive style in which people intentionally seek out information that contradicts their beliefs. People who score high on this trait tend to tolerate ambiguity, avoid jumping to conclusions, and be willing to revise their opinions when presented with new evidence. This involves temporarily stepping away from one’s own assumptions in order to objectively assess a complex situation.
“This study came to me after I finished my book on side bias. Prejudice that divides us. “Writing this book was a reminder of how politicized many fields of psychology are,” said study author Keith E. Stanovich, professor emeritus of applied psychology and human development at the University of Toronto.
“I thought that actively open-minded thinking, a thinking disposition that my research group has been studying for some time, had the potential to become politicized because actively open-minded thinking is associated with a number of adaptive epistemological attitudes (which makes this thinking disposition good for getting high scores). Moreover, actively open-minded thinking shows a moderate correlation (about 0.35) with political liberalism.”
“I found that the correlation was often overinterpreted in the general discussion. I wanted to explore in more detail the nature of the overlap between actively open-minded thinking and liberalism.”
For the study, researchers recruited 682 adult participants from the United States using an online crowdsourcing platform called Prolific. The sample was relatively diverse, with a median age of 39 years and included 406 women and 264 men. Participants completed an online survey that took a median time of 22 minutes to complete.
The scientists measured several psychological and political variables using a six-point scale. They used a specialized 13-item questionnaire to assess political affiliation, religious commitment, and positive open-mindedness. This particular questionnaire was designed without the word “belief” to avoid confusing political or religious views with basic information processing skills.
The researchers also measured various mental states and attitudes that interfere with logical thinking. These included beliefs in the paranormal, paranoia, and traits associated with the Dark Triad, a psychological term that describes a combination of narcissism, manipulative behavior, and lack of empathy. Participants were also tested for extreme political attitudes, including both right-wing and left-wing authoritarianism and support for political violence.
The survey also assessed extreme skepticism and extreme trust in institutions. Scientists used a measure of hidden causal power to measure excessive suspicion of elites, and at the same time a measure of distrust of government to measure overly trusting attitudes toward government actions.
To test how well participants valued complex information, the survey included questions about established conspiracy theories. Participants had to identify historically verified true conspiracies as well as mature false conspiracies, such as the idea that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job. Finally, the researchers presented a series of nine controversial statements that were deliberately designed to appeal to liberal political biases but lacked strong factual support.
The data provide evidence that actively open-minded thinking is not just a proxy for liberal ideology. Although these two traits did show a moderate positive correlation, they separated dramatically when it came to evaluating irrational or extreme ideas. For example, liberal ideology was positively associated with left-wing authoritarianism.
Contrary to that trend, actively open-mindedness showed a significant negative correlation with left-wing authoritarianism. This means that people who score high on tolerance are less likely to hold authoritarian views, even if they are politically left-leaning. The same pattern emerged for anti-democratic attitudes and support for political violence, with liberalism showing a positive association, but tolerant thinking showing a negative association.
Actively open-minded thinking consistently protects against illogical states of mind. High open-mindedness scores were negatively correlated with paranormal beliefs, paranoia, and dark triad traits. Liberal ideology either showed no association with these unhelpful mental states or was correlated in an unhealthy direction.
The data also provide evidence that liberal ideology is associated with excessive trust in government institutions. On the other hand, an open-minded mindset was negatively correlated with both extreme trust in government and extreme skepticism toward opposition.
Scientists also found that open-mindedness was a much stronger predictor of truth-seeking than political ideology. Both open-mindedness and liberalism helped people distinguish between true and false historical conspiracies. However, actively open-minded thinking was significantly correlated with this ability, making it the only variable in this study that consistently predicted accurate conspiracy ratings.
The conspiracy theory evaluation portion of the study highlighted how open-mindedness can foster healthy skepticism. Although many psychological variables were correlated with believing in both true and false conspiracies simultaneously, open-minded thinking followed a purely logical pattern. High scores on this trait were associated with rejecting debunked historical conspiracies while remaining open to verified government controversies.
The difference between ideology and open-mindedness became even clearer when faced with nine highly partisan, liberal-leaning statements. Liberal participants tended to agree with these statements, which included exaggerated claims about institutional bias and the economy. On the other hand, participants who scored high on actively open-minded thinking tended to reject these partisan temptations, demonstrating an ability to separate facts from politically appealing narratives.
For example, one statement claimed that prestigious universities were actively colluding to exclude minority students. Liberal participants were more likely to agree with this broad claim, while highly open-minded participants were more likely to reject it. This trend applies to most politically charged statements.
Researchers suggest that a key characteristic of an actively open-minded mindset is cognitive decoupling. This mental process allows people to detach from their current social context and partisan identity when evaluating claims. It forces the brain to separate the analysis of facts from emotional beliefs and identity politics.
This distancing requires a great deal of mental effort, making it a relatively rare mental style. Because it is so difficult to distinguish between identity and information, many people naturally rely on their political ideology to make decisions. The Open-Minded Thinking Scale appears to identify people who are willing to do extra mental work.
“The message from this study was that actively open-minded thinking constitutes the ‘good’ part of liberalism,” Stanovich told Cypost. “Specifically, being liberal without actively exhibiting open-minded thinking has no benefit in avoiding suboptimal thinking. Liberalism without actively open-minded thinking is not associated with positive epistemological outcomes, whereas the reverse (actively open-minded advanced thinking without liberalism) is often associated.”
“Liberalism is moderately correlated with left-wing authoritarianism, whereas actively open-minded thinking shows a significant negative correlation. Actively open-minded thinking performance shows significant negative correlations with many variables that disrupt epistemic rationality (e.g., paranormal beliefs, paranoia, the Dark Triad, distrust of government), whereas liberal ideology either does not correlate with these variables or is positively correlated (i.e., in a maladaptive direction).
A limitation of this study is its reliance on self-reported survey data from a single online platform, which may not be fully representative of the general public at large. The controversial beliefs used in this study were also chosen specifically to tempt liberal respondents, meaning that testing for conservative blind spots in exactly the same way would require a different set of questions. These factors mean that the results provide a specific snapshot rather than a complete picture of political psychology.
Future research will focus on the relationship between actively open-minded thinking and general intelligence. Scientists plan to investigate whether the mental benefits of active, open-minded thinking are simply a byproduct of higher intelligence. They want to determine whether this cognitive style offers unique advantages in processing information independent of a person’s basic intellectual abilities.
The study, “Actively Open-Minded Thinking and Liberal Ideology – Coupling and Dissociation,” was authored by Keith E. Stanovich and Maggie E. Toprak.
