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Old 06-08-2005, 09:22 AM   #1
Undertoad
Radical Centrist
 
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Location: Cottage of Prussia
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Political compass II

If people want to post their Political Compass scores again now, I promise to graph them again, like I did on
this thread from 2002 which we briefly revisited in January.

The test takes 5 minutes and is interesting. My new numbers:

Economic Left/Right: 1.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.97
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Old 06-08-2005, 09:44 AM   #2
Happy Monkey
I think this line's mostly filler.
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: DC
Posts: 13,575
Economic Left/Right: -7.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.69
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Old 06-08-2005, 09:46 AM   #3
Silent
Romanes Eunt Domus
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 702
Economic Left/Right: -4.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.79
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Old 06-08-2005, 09:46 AM   #4
glatt
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Arlington, VA
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Me and Ghandi.

Economic Left/Right: -5.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.92
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Old 06-08-2005, 10:09 AM   #5
SteveDallas
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-5.8, -6.1.

Let's hear it for representing authoritarianism as a positive!
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Old 06-08-2005, 10:23 AM   #6
russotto
Professor
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,788
Economic: 1.5
Authoritarian: -4.36

Many of the questions contained assumptions I didn't agree with, so I think it tends to measure me inaccurately.
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Old 06-08-2005, 10:29 AM   #7
glatt
 
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I think it's amusing that most of the world leaders are all on the authoritarian side of things. Of course they are. They are the authorities. Of course they think they should be able to tell everyone what to do.
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Old 06-08-2005, 12:47 PM   #8
BigV
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Join Date: Nov 2004
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Quote:
Originally Posted by russotto
Economic: 1.5
Authoritarian: -4.36

Many of the questions contained assumptions I didn't agree with, so I think it tends to measure me inaccurately.
As I read the information at the site, the questions are deliberately phrased to induce a decision, not agreement. They're designed to provoke a response, which can then be measured. Hence, the "score" at the end.

As to measuring inaccurately, perhaps. But if we all use the same wrong scale, then the relative differences will be neglible, even if the starting point is wrong compared to an outside source.
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Old 06-08-2005, 10:16 AM   #9
lookout123
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economic L/R -.38
social L/A -1.28


some of the questions (like this one)
Quote:
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.
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Old 01-12-2008, 11:41 PM   #10
lookout123
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lookout123 View Post
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
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Old 01-13-2008, 08:31 AM   #11
richlevy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lookout123 View Post
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.
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Old 01-13-2008, 08:55 AM   #12
richlevy
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Still Crazy After All of These Years......

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
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Last edited by richlevy; 01-13-2008 at 09:02 AM.
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Old 06-08-2005, 10:29 AM   #13
Radar
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Posts: 4,006
I'm almost exactly in the same spot I was back then.

My current numbers...

Economic Left/Right: 7.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.31

My old numbers...

Economic Left/Right: 7.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.41
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Old 06-08-2005, 11:31 AM   #14
SteveDallas
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Wow that's pretty fickle.
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Old 06-08-2005, 12:19 PM   #15
warch
lurkin old school
 
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Econ L/R -2.38
Soc Lib/Auth -5.28

I'm creeping towards moderate...previous -2.88 and -6.41
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