I was born to left-wing parents, raised within a left-wing family, grew up with mostly left-wing friends, and then studied at universities filled with left-wing students and academics. Today, I work at one of the most left-wing universities in the UK, I live in one of its most left-wing cities, and people with left-wing views dominate my professional and social networks.

I was also pretty left-wing throughout most of my life. As late as 2016, I was not just a proud member of the Labour Party, the UK’s main left-wing party, but a passionate supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s most left-wing leader in many years.

For all these reasons and more, one of the most dramatic changes in my intellectual outlook in recent years has been becoming less left-wing. Today’s essay and the others in this series will describe this process. This description is meant to be autobiographical, not persuasive. I am not trying to convince anyone of the views I have come to hold or even to present arguments for them, but to describe my intellectual evolution and its causes.

Of course, self-narratives like this are typically unconsciously biased by self-serving embellishments, exaggerations, and omissions. No doubt this one will be, too. For example, my description will be highly intellectualised, focusing on the role of new ideas and discoveries in changing my views rather than, say, incentives, emotions, or other non-rational factors, which—if my own published views about human psychology and belief are correct—have likely played a significant role. Nevertheless, describing this process might interest some readers, so here goes.

The “left”

The left-right political spectrum comes from the French Revolution, when supporters of the ancien régime sat on the right side of the chamber within the National Assembly, and supporters of the revolution sat on the left.

Since then, the packages of ideas associated with the left and right have changed substantially across time and place. Even something seemingly basic today in many Western countries—the idea that being “left-wing” combines social liberalism with a preference for substantial economic intervention and redistribution by the state—is not the typical pattern worldwide.

Given this, one might view talk of becoming less “left-wing” as incoherently assuming a single, consistent political