Liberalism describes the readiness to question conventional values, challenge established norms, and reexamine authority structures. High scorers are willing to reconsider principles and traditions they were raised with, are open to alternative social arrangements, and find the critical examination of received wisdom rewarding rather than threatening. Low scorers prefer the stability of established values and norms; they are more likely to respect authority and tradition, find social conventions a reliable guide to behavior, and experience challenges to established moral frameworks as destabilizing rather than interesting.
A note on the label
The NEO-PI-R called this facet Values. The NEO-PI-3's Liberalism is a more precise description of the construct but also the most likely facet label to generate misinterpretation. In the NEO-PI-3, "Liberalism" does not refer primarily to left-wing political ideology, though the two are empirically correlated. It refers to the general disposition to question established values and norms — a broader concept of which political liberalism is one expression. A high score on this facet means a person is inclined to reexamine rules and norms critically; it does not specify the direction of their conclusions.
Which aspect Liberalism belongs to
Liberalism is the second facet loading on the abstract Intellect aspect of the Openness/Intellect domain, alongside Intellect (O5). Both facets involve engagement with abstract content — Intellect with ideas and reasoning, Liberalism with values and normative frameworks. The Intellect aspect is oriented toward the questioning and revision of what is accepted: accepted ideas (Intellect) and accepted norms (Liberalism).
This grouping distinguishes the Intellect aspect from the experiential Openness aspect. Where Imagination, Artistic Interests, Emotionality, and Adventurousness are about receptivity to experience itself, Intellect and Liberalism are about a particular stance toward conceptual and normative content — a readiness to interrogate and revise rather than simply receive.
How Liberalism differs from adjacent facets
The distinction from Intellect (O5) is one of domain: Intellect is about engagement with abstract ideas; Liberalism is about willingness to question social and moral norms. A person can be high in Intellect without being particularly liberal in the values sense — a rigorous formal logician with conventional social values who enjoys abstract reasoning while accepting established authority structures. Conversely, a person can be high in Liberalism without being particularly engaged with abstract intellectual content — questioning social norms through lived experience rather than theoretical analysis.
Within the Openness domain, Liberalism is the facet most directly linked to social and political attitudes, making it the facet most likely to generate different interpretations depending on the reader's own political orientation. The facet describes a disposition, not a political position.
What Liberalism specifically predicts
Liberalism carries the largest share of the Openness-political orientation association. Carney, Jost, Gosling, and Potter's 2008 study across six samples found consistent evidence that Openness predicts liberal political orientation; at the facet level, the Liberalism facet (formerly Values) is the most proximate predictor of that association, followed by Intellect. The association is stronger for social attitudes (immigration, diversity, gender norms) than for economic attitudes (taxation, redistribution), consistent with the facet's orientation toward social norms and authority structures rather than economic frameworks.
Liberalism also predicts willingness to update long-held beliefs when confronted with new evidence, and cross-cultural acceptance — the tendency to view different cultural practices and value systems as legitimate rather than deficient. In combination with high Intellect (O5), it produces the profile most associated with intellectual open-mindedness: the willingness to question established ideas (Intellect) and established norms (Liberalism) simultaneously.
For the broader Openness context, see the Openness to Experience dimension page.