Thread: The political compass

That was quite interesting although i'm not sure if all questions were about my so called 'political views'.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Typical comment from one of you "Ghandi" types!

hey, you're not so far off your self!

Nah, it's just the whole idea of this is quite an involved one, and I don't think the analysis does it justice.

Me taking the test .... and my results ....

I think the "forced" nature of some of the questions, especially use of the "nevers" and "Always" kind of language really skews the test if one (like me) overthinks it. I got all lawyerly about it. Now, I figured I'd be down in the lower left....but I think this is a little extreme.

Originally Posted by smokelaw1

I think the "forced" nature of some of the questions, especially use of the "nevers" and "Always" kind of language really skews the test if one (like me) overthinks it. I got all lawyerly about it. Now, I figured I'd be down in the lower left....but I think this is a little extreme.

HA!

I'm not surprised at all!

BTW, I conducted a test, and answered every single question "strongly agree", and the results was right in the center (left to right), four squares up from the origin.

I then answered every single question "strongly disagree", and the result was again in the center (left-right), but four squares down from the origin.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

HA!

I'm not surprised at all!

Nor am I. But I do honeslty believe (know, in fact) that I wouldn't have been so extreme had I answered questions the way they would "want" me to answer them. Again, the "never" and "always" qualifier tended to lead to extreme answers, when in reality, I might not feel THAT strongly about the topic. It's jsut that when you say "never" or "always" I may strongly disagree that X is ALWAYS bad, but I might not strongly disagree that X is BAD. I have no idea if this makes sense. If I knew what the effect would be of acting against what I know their desired "take" on the question was....why did I do it?
Well, because I'm a putz. A big ol' commie leftist putz.

Originally Posted by smokelaw1

Nor am I. But I do honeslty believe (know, in fact) that I wouldn't have been so extreme had I answered questions the way they would "want" me to answer them. Again, the "never" and "always" qualifier tended to lead to extreme answers, when in reality, I might not feel THAT strongly about the topic. It's jsut that when you say "never" or "always" I may strongly disagree that X is ALWAYS bad, but I might not strongly disagree that X is BAD. I have no idea if this makes sense. If I knew what the effect would be of acting against what I know their desired "take" on the question was....why did I do it?
Well, because I'm a putz. A big ol' commie leftist putz.

HA HA HA!!!!

That's some funny stuff there!

The fact that you think that "they" have a certain answer that they are fishing for all the more clearly points out the fact that you may be even farther down and to the left than that chart reveals!


I had my suspicions too, which is why I conducted my "test", to see if there was any particular bias to the totality of the questions.

I think I might have been less than perfectly clear. For example "It is never a good idea to mix peas with carrots." I think it is a fine idea to mix peas with carrots. I slightly disagree with the statement "It is not a good idea to mix peas with carrots." But really, I barely care at all. It is never a good idea, however...I disagree much more strongly withthe "never" than the "mix peas and carrots" that it modifies. I doubt that this was the intent of the question writer. Me answering as if it was liely skewed my results.

As for your test, the questions flipped back and forth between those that would speak to either side, I am not surprised at all by your results. Flipping abck and forth, answering strongly either way ALL the time would land you right in the middle.

I don't mean there is a left/right skew to the questions. And also, ESPECIALLY when it comes to ALWAYS questions that I DO agree with, I can very, very rarely say I strongly agree, because I leave WAY too much room for the "what if's." It's why my "personality test" came back with an C- grade on it.

Score one for the Blue Quadrant!

I agree. There also needs to be a neutral button. Sometimes forcing you to take a stand is good, but things like the gay questions or nationality questions, I really don't care about. But I had to answer so I think that shifted me away from moderate.