Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Firmly in the Third Quadrant

I know that these things are supposed to be viewed as silly and uninformative, but I actually think the Political Compass test is reasonably interesting. I've been taking it every couple of years at least since I started college, just to see whether and to what extent my views shift over time. I also think comparing scores between people can be illuminating, since I often assume that people, especially bloggers that I have no actual personal experience with, are more liberal or conservative than they really are.

As of today, I'm -4.38 on the economic axis and -5.49 on the social issues axis. My economic score almost never varies much, but my social score tends to vacillate a point and a half in either direction. Not sure if that's a function of my mood at the time or what, since I don't keep any record of how I answer individual questions. I'm definitely still a liberal though. Phew.

1 comment:

Rebecca C. Brown said...

-3.50 economic, -7.18 libertarian/authoritarian for me today!

I think I gave my most surprising answers on thew first two pages. "Those with the ability to pay should have the right to higher standards of medical care," I strongly agree. "The only social responsibility of a company should be to deliver a profit to its shareholders," I agree (they have the responsibility not to hurt people, but they have no obligation to "give back" to society). "There is now a worrying fusion of information and entertainment," I strongly disagree (duh, the Daily Show!). And so on.

Others I answered the way a casual acquaintance would expect me to answer. "Because corporations cannot be trusted to voluntarily protect the environment, they require regulation?" Fuck yeah.

What's simultaneously interesting and frustrating about this particular survey is that the items measure the underlying constuct in a abstract ways. The "each to his ability" one is a good example.

Plus I always appreciate Likert scale items with an even number of response options!