Portrait of Steven Pinker
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Steven Pinker

Canadian-American psychologist and author

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A Harvard cognitive scientist who argues in The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now that reason, science and trade have made the world safer and healthier.

Steven Pinker sits in the right-libertarian part of the Caucus economy and liberty compass: slightly free market and strongly libertarian. The clearest positions are strongly tech-optimist on technology, strongly secular on religion and strongly libertarian on liberty and authority. The profile is close to the middle on interventionism.

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Where Steven Pinker sits on ten dimensions

Each scale runs from one pole to the other, and the dot shows the overall tendency of this person's record and public life. These are simplified estimates and open to debate.

💰EconomySlightly free market
State-ledFree market
⚖️Liberty and authorityStrongly libertarian
LibertarianAuthoritarian
🎭CultureLeaning progressive
ProgressiveTraditional
🌍NationLeaning globalist
GlobalistNationalist
🌱EnvironmentSlightly nature-first
Growth-firstNature-first
🤖TechnologyStrongly tech-optimist
Tech-cautiousTech-optimist
🕊️War and peaceLeaning peace-first
Peace-firstStrength-first
🏛️InstitutionsStrongly institutional
Anti-establishmentInstitutional
🙏ReligionStrongly secular
SecularReligious
🛡️InterventionismCentered on interventionism
Non-interventionistInterventionist

People most like Steven Pinker

Neil deGrasse Tyson American astrophysicist and presenter99%Karl Popper Austrian-British philosopher, 1902 to 199498%Emma Bonino Italian politician and Radical Party leader98%Richard Dawkins British evolutionary biologist98%Nick Clegg Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 2010 to 201598%John Stuart Mill English philosopher and MP, 1806 to 187398%Ray Kurzweil American inventor and futurist97%Tyler Cowen American economist and blogger97%

People furthest from Steven Pinker

Ruhollah Khomeini Supreme Leader of Iran, 1979 to 19894%Hibatullah Akhundzada Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, 2021 to present5%Mojtaba Khamenei Supreme Leader of Iran, 2026 to present5%Vladimir Putin President of Russia, 2000 to present (with a term as prime minister)5%

Political views closest to Steven Pinker

Secular humanismBases ethics and public life on reason and science rather than religion.98%Effective altruismUses evidence and reason to find the most effective ways of doing good, often favoring…98%Social liberalismDefends individual rights and open societies while backing public services and equal…98%CosmopolitanismPuts shared humanity and international institutions above national boundaries.97%

Read more about Steven Pinker

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Biographies of Steven PinkerBooks on secular humanism

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Percentages show how close two profiles are across all ten dimensions. Including a person here is for study and comparison, not approval. Portrait: Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; see all photo credits.