Political compass II

[lookout123]

economic L/R -.38
social L/A -1.28


some of the questions (like this one)

Mothers may have careers, but their first duty is to be homemakers.

are difficult to answer. i had to answer yes to it. but if they had a question that said Fathers may have careers, but their first duty is to their family. i would have answered yes to that as well.

[lookout123]

Originally Posted by lookout123

economic L/R -.38
social L/A -1.28


some of the questions (like this one) are difficult to answer. i had to answer yes to it. but if they had a question that said Fathers may have careers, but their first duty is to their family. i would have answered yes to that as well.

That is the old and I still feel the same about the phrasing of certain questions.

Here's the new:
Economic Left/Right: 1.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.51

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by lookout123

That is the old and I still feel the same about the phrasing of certain questions.

Here's the new:
Economic Left/Right: 1.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.51

There is a similar personality test used in psychology and career guidance, which does the same thing. It asks vague questions which could be challenged on any number of issues and basically the combination of answers is more important that the reasoning behind the answers.

Example question:

My father was a good man. True False

Depending on if someones father is alive or dead, or if they thought their father was ever a good man, the answer differs depending on how literal they approach the questions. If someone's father is still alive they could put False by objecting to the use of the word 'was'. The test doesn't care specifically about the answer. It combines this with all of the other questions to see if the person is just literal-minded or has an issue with their father. The test works by building a database of similar answers to make assumptions.

I did some Google Research and found this, a section in the book Organization Man on How to Cheat on Personality Tests. If you are doing a test for yourself (career guidance, political compass, etc), then when you cheat you are cheating yourself. The book believes that if you want the job, you should cheat on the test if necessary. I'm not sure I agree with that.

[richlevy]

I noticed they updated the questions to reflect different concerns. It was the darn plastic bottles that did me in. A little more left, a little more authoritarian. Excuse me, but I must leave in order to fast and pray for my soul now.

BTW, I sincerely doubt that they were truly able to measure candidates true beliefs by speeches and votes. At some point politicians speeches are tailored towards what the public wants to hear and votes are constrained by what the public and the legislature will accept. These issues might still constrain a president to some small degree, but nowhere near as much. GWB's score on these issues has probably changed dramatically in the past 7 years.

Jan 2008

Economic Left/Right: -5.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.69

June 2005

Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.72