Nathan J. Murphy

15/03/2026

Imagining a future where we have moved beyond monist political ideologies.

15/03/2026

What if political institutions were designed the way we design scientific models — grounded in empirical understanding of reality?

In this piece, I imagine the year 2525, when the behavioural foundations of human nature are treated as settled knowledge in political design.

For much of history, political systems were built on ideological visions of how people should behave. However, modern psychology, behavioural science, and anthropology increasingly reveal stable features of how humans actually think, cooperate, and judge legitimacy.

The implication is straightforward: durable political institutions must be designed in alignment with these behavioural realities.

However, today there is still a large gap between what we know about human nature and how we design democratic systems.

Closing that gap may become one of the central political projects of the coming decades.

Full piece in comments.

03/01/2026

How to Unlock Centrist Power

I’ve just published a new essay on Substack exploring a question that sits at the heart of modern democratic politics: If most citizens are broadly moderate, pragmatic, and non-ideological — why does the political centre struggle to mobilise power?

The core argument is that centrism’s weakness is not a messaging problem, but a structural one.

⚖️ Historically, centrism functioned as a method of governance — balancing interests, restraining excess, and maintaining stability. That worked in an era of strong institutions and broad social trust. But in today’s highly polarised, movement-driven political environment, a method without an identity cannot compete with ideologies that offer purpose, belonging, and moral clarity.

The essay argues that the centre has been defined almost entirely by what it opposes — extremism, polarisation, dysfunction — rather than what it stands for. As a result, it lacks narrative force, emotional resonance, and organisational coherence.

🧠 I propose a different foundation: rebuilding the political centre around a psychologically realistic understanding of human nature. Instead of anchoring politics to left–right ideology, this framework evaluates policy and institutions by how well they align with evolved human social instincts — fairness, care, cooperation, and group belonging.

Grounded in behavioural science rather than abstraction, this approach reframes centrism not as a compromise between extremes, but as a positive, principled movement with its own logic, legitimacy, and mobilising power.

📘 If you’re interested in the future of democratic politics — and how the centre might become a source of strength rather than drift — you can read the full essay over on my Substack:

👉 https://lnkd.in/dGziQ93A

20/12/2025

Why Anti-Capitalism Collides with Human Nature

Capitalism has real flaws. Inequality, instability, environmental damage — all of that is true.

But the harder question is this: do the alternatives actually work given how humans behave?

In this piece I argue that most contemporary anti-capitalist ideas fail not because they’re immoral, but because they ignore basic realities of human psychology, behavioural biology, and competition.

Humans cooperate — but only under specific conditions.
Competition doesn’t disappear when you ban markets — it relocates into politics, bureaucracy, and power struggles.
And societies that weaken their competitive capacity don’t opt out of global rivalry — they lose it.

This isn’t an argument for laissez-faire capitalism. It’s an argument for managed competitiveness over managed decline.

If you’re interested in how economics, evolution, and politics actually intersect — not how we wish they did — you might find this useful.

👉 Link in comments

01/12/2025

Excited to share my interview with the European Democracy Hub (EDP): how behavioural science gives us a robust framework to help renew democracy 👥🔄

In the interview, I reflect on why understanding human psychology — fairness, cooperation, group identity — matters for designing more legitimate, resilient democratic institutions.

👉 Read it here: https://europeandemocracyhub.epd.eu/interview-with-nathan-murphy/

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What aspects of behavioural-science-informed democracy resonate with you?

This interview explores how a behavioural approach to identity and belonging can help liberal democracy rebuild trust and outpace extremes.

30/11/2025

The Future of Democracy Lies in Our Instincts.

In this article, written for 'What To Do About Now' — a peer-reviewed blog — I outline how fundamental human realities of evolved social preferences explain how we experience political legitimacy and ultimately determine how competitive our societies are. See comments for 🔗!

08/11/2025

Why Political Philosophy Has Failed.

Two millennia of argument, no settled base.
This article shows why political philosophy should start with how humans actually are—and what changes when it does.
Read it if you want a clear, evidence-led way to sort workable ideas from wishful thinking.

02/11/2025

This is how we can leverage knowledge of human behaviour to build better political systems. (See Comments)

20/10/2025

A piece in Conservative Home taking a view how the framework outlined in ‘Liberalism That Wins’ can deliver for a conservative perspective.

Britain’s Conservative Party has always thrived when it has combined realism about human nature — or at least voter’s instincts — with a unifying national vision.

02/10/2025

Tom Egerton at The Political Inquiry has written one of the first in-depth reviews of my book, Liberalism That Wins. Rather than a quick synopsis, he situates it in Britain’s current political crisis and pulls out what he sees as the book’s core challenge: rebuilding legitimacy by aligning our politics with the evolved human instincts of fairness, cooperation, care and group-preference.

He also raises the hard questions I hoped to provoke — where we draw the boundaries of “the group,” while avoiding ethnonationalism, and how Britain can improve its competitiveness.

If you’re curious about the ideas behind the book, or the debate they’re sparking, his piece is a great place to start.

Analysis of Nathan J. Murphy’s new political philosophy

01/10/2025

Here are a few endorsements for LTW, which has attracted praise from some of the world's leading scientists.