Political education in the US and many of the countries that hold these polls is awful. I'd trust a middle-schooler from Cuba, Vietnam, or China more than an ivy-league-educated polysci graduate when it comes to political awareness.
It sounds like you're thinking of Libertarianism which is a subset of liberalism, but they are distinct.
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various and often mutually warring views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.
Liberalism supports capitalism and private property, thats not left wing. Leftism isnt "when government does stuff", its worker owned economies and true progress (no unions dont count as a worker owned economy). There are centrist ideologies which aren't strictly speaking left or right like Social Democracy and Georgism but Liberalism isn't in that category.