A liquid crystal display and method for driving the liquid crystal display are provided. The liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel assembly including a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines intersecting the gate lines, a plurality of switching elements connected to the gate lines and the data lines, a plurality of pixel electrodes connected to the switching elements, and a reference electrode opposing the pixel electrodes, a gate driver for applying gate signals to the gate lines to activate the switching elements, a data driver for applying data voltages that are be applied to the pixel electrodes to the data lines, and a reference voltage generator for generating first to third reference voltages to be respectively applied to first to third positions of the reference electrode, the first reference voltage being smaller than the third reference voltage and the third reference voltage being smaller than the second reference voltage, and the first position being closer to the gate driver than the third position and the third position being closer to the gate driver than the second position.