Two groups of pioneers - conservatives in one group, liberals in another - are assembled and sent to establish separate colonies. What would happen?

Each group would eventually break into factions.

Dominant faction takes over.

It’s inevitable.

How in the world did I link to a question that wasn’t even posted yet?!

The liberals would have community gardens, be whipping up happy brownies and having art and poetry festivals and an open door policy in their liberal commune.
The conservatives would be hiding behind locked doors with their semi-automatic weapons, peering out of the curtains in the dark, bitching that the liberals have let their bushes grow too bushy and are ruining the neighborhood. lol

I think the premise stated each group would have their own isolated colony to govern.

The first notion we have to consider is why governance is necessary at all. After all, either group could be capable of establishing itself as an anarcho-syndicalist commune.

The conservatives will establish a militaristic and authoritarian regime with a strong emphasis on religion. Poverty, crises, crime, and any sort of dysfunctionality will be blamed on the moral failings of the people affected, and the general neglect of the weak and poor will be rationalised under the pretext of self-reliance and personal responsibility.

Within a century the conservatives will be an imperial powerhouse, its economy led by amoral multinational corporations enslaving millions and polluting the Earth with no regard for eco systems or sustainability. Their paranoia and outgroup animosity will lead to the growth of a huge technologically advanced military, which will often “preemptively” attack anyone deemed a threat to their security—sometimes with nuclear weapons.

The liberals will recreate Sweden. For a while they’ll be rather peaceful and pleasant, with a caring and reasonably egalitarian society, but eventually degenerate into a gynocracy run by doctrinaire feminists.

Society will stagnate as most men will be depressed video-game addicts with no interest or motivation to do anything for the progress of civilization. The women, who will dominate all sectors of society, will complain bitterly about the lack of “real men”, and further depress the male population by allowing only feminist approved video games. High suicide rates, and low birth rates will threaten the population’s sustainability.

I agree with @SABOTEUR eventually the groups would break apart within a colony to some extent.

The conservatives would for many years have zero gay people (not really, but they would have to repress, be in hiding, or be dead from killing themselves). They would have strict rules about how to conduct oneself, when to eat, what to eat, how to act, what is good and what is bad. They would have more laws about what is acceptible behavior. They would progress scientifically at a slower pace than the liberals, or at minimum would have a lot of flack when a conservative has a scientific theory that counters what the powers at be believe to be true. People will expect each and every person to take care of themselves, there will be haves and have nots. But, society will go through cycles of paying better wages, then not so good. Also, initially there will be many small businesses and self employment, bartering, but over time this will diminish and give way to bigger business.

Liberals would have a more open society where people can be themselves as individuals, philosophy and open discussion of ideas would prevail. Seeking knowledge and questioning would be a significant part of the society. Scientific discovery would be supported and encouraged. There will be a desire for all people to live in a similar way, that incomes be more level. If it goes to an extreme, communism, this will leave the society without economic prosperity for the masses. If it stays in a more healthy economic system people will enjoy a safer society where people work together and there is not many extremes of great wealth or extreme poverty.

In both, as the societies struggle with various issues whether they be economic or some other matter, there will be factions that counter what is commonly practiced in that society and be a catalyst for change.

Actually, “conservative” and “liberal” meaning is derived through their relationship with the other. Seperate them, and a new devisiveness is created. Conservatives would evolve into those that are “more” conservative, “ultra conservative”, “true” conservative, etc.

A similar division would occur with the liberals. The point being the same inability to co-exist would develop despite attempts to create the ideal social system.

Religion is a perfect example. You’d think that all Christians (for example) would be unified. This isn’t the case, as we see how Christianity (as well as other religions) is divided into so many sects it’s difficult to believe they worship the same deity.

(In fact, they don’t, as each sect just sees their perspective as being valid.)

Relationships within each colony would degenerate to the point where they’d have to seek people outside the colony to demonize in order to force unification within the colony.

Nothing brings people together like a good old fashioned war.

They’d become mixed groups eventually.

The liberals would look for creative solutions to problems that arise, and would develop approaches that solve problems. Not all of them would be successful, but they would move forward.

The conservatives would weep at their lot in life and reminisce about how things used to be. But they would be on a steady downhill path to suffering and hunger because they are unable to think outside the box. In the end they would die, steadfast in their love for the good old days.

There’s some research that finds structural brain differences in self-identified conservatives and liberals. Conservatives seem to have more developed amygdalas, the organ that produces fear; and liberals seem to have more developed anterior cingulate cortices, the area that develops coping strategies in uncertain situations.

If that’s true, then I’d expect the conservative pioneers to feel threatened by this unknown environment. They would likely respond to this by attempting to recreate institutions and ways of doing things that they are already familiar with, so as to minimize the unknowns. They would, in the beginning at least, form a cohesive group, unified by their sense of being under threat. But if the new environment turned out to be more or less benign, that initial unity would disintegrate as the sense of threat now targets conspicuously different members of the group. Strength, courage and certainty would be the most valued character traits, and individuals who exemplify them would rise quickly to power. Similarly, religion would form around a God who is involved, militant, partisan and punitive.

I’d expect that the liberal pioneers would be excited by the opportunity to explore new ways of doing things. They would approach the new environment in a spirit of curiosity and adventure, then fashion institutions that attempt to conform to the conditions they find. This would involve lots of trial and error, and many competing philosophies, so things would be pretty chaotic at first. Eventually, strategies would emerge from that chaotic soup that seem to function well, so things will run more smoothly; there will still be many, though, that aren’t content with how things are done and continue to look for better ways. Creativity, intelligence, and altruism will be the most valued character traits, but they won’t be a ticket to power. To whatever extent religion emerges, it will be rather indefinite, declining to define its God in specific terms.

If these structural brain differences turn out to be genetically encoded, then I would think that these propensities would carry forward into the succeeding generations, since you’ve now created selected gene pools.

My initial reaction –
The liberals will disintegrate morally.
The conservatives will end up being ruled by the overly conservative, and will be overly dogmatic.

My actual reaction –
There’d be enough divisions among the two groups that I don’t think they’d end up quite as different as you might initially think.

The conservatives would end up like the Puritans, happy, then devisive, then burning heretics. Then they’d divide up into many factions.
Liberals would have a utopia until everyone starting in-fighting, then they’d divide into many factions.

We need each other to see all viewpoints.

I look at it this way. If what @thorninmud writes is true, then I’d probably be cast into the conservative group. If that happens, then my liberal streak would eventually destabilize the conservative colony because I would be grousing behind closed doors and in quiet one-on-one discussions, spreading the seeds of angst and churlishness. I may be dead but the seeds will be sown.

So I think that eventually each colony will birth its opposite side. We humans tend to live in dualities.

@DaphneT Great point! As a liberal conservative, if they don’t allow gays to come into our colony, or ostracize them, or kill the children born gay, I’d be raising a little storm myself.

Of course, special interests always seem to defeat idealism because of the money, so maybe they’d try to pay us off in berries or something lol