United We Stand
According to a new survey it looks as if Americans are more united than divided. Nate Silver (538) breaks it down. The questions cover a variety of issues, asking the participants to rate (on a scale of 0-10) whether they agree or disagree. You can take the test here.
Luckily, Nate does the hard work for us by charting the results.
If you’re having trouble picking up on a pattern in that data, that’s because there isn’t one. The correlation between the fraction of conservatives and the fraction of liberals agreeing to a given question is essentially zero.
Zero? Go on, take the 40 question test. I took it, and while I came out extremely progressive, I was surprised by how many times I didn’t chose either end of the number spectrum, 0 or 10. The Center For American Progress provides another interesting chart after you take the quiz. This chart – which, for some reason, I can’t copy – provides a more detailed breakdown.
So, grab your cup of coffee and take the survey. I’m interested in how everyone scores. BTW, my score was 330/400. The average score was 209.5
I ended up at a 297/300. I think there is a good deal of truth in the results. Regardless of people’s voting behavior, most in conversation turn out not the be the ideologues for whom they often vote. Wording of the questions is also key, though I saw some bias on both sides with the questions in this survey. An interesting activity overall.
340/400
303-400
337/400
351/400
307/400
337/400
370/400
322/400
237/400
Apparently I am a progressive.
“Wording of the questions is also key,…”
Like lumping the poor in with the sick and elderly.
200/400
The wording of that question isn’t too far from the demands of Corporal Acts of Mercy…
It’s just a general concept. Everybody get all tied up in potential bias.
Let’s say the poor, sick and elderly were described by one sweeping phrase… say “victims of capitalism”, or “the neediest”, or “people who didn’t win in the free market but still contributed and tried their best”…
For most of the questions, I was either “0” or “10”.
How about others?
You know I wasn’t as extreme on some of the political economic questions as well as the foreign policy ones. I lean left but not all the way. Culturally, I’m left of Kucinich. I guess that explains the 322. Not as “progressive” as some here.
I think the wording of the questions was deliberate. The use of the words always and never had me moving away from the 0 and 10 choice, and that may be the point – Americans like exceptions to rules.
It goes to show you, you don’t always perceive yourself the way others do.
I consider myself moderate to liberal Dem. and this test defines a 314/400 “extremely liberal”.
Sheesh, Bill! I could have told you that! 😉
329/400
So the commentor closest to me in this quiz is VC. He should be very proud! 🙂
296 bitches!!!!
The wording was critical, but I tried not to nit-pick it in my answers. So I got one surprise and one not-surprise.
Not-surprise: as a libertarian I scored a 206/400 on this test.
Surprise: with that score the test labeled me as a “progressive.” Not sure anybody here would agree with that.
But I can see how it happens, as I was on the far far liberal end of a lot of questions on social issues like abortion or gay rights (answering with either a 0 or a 10 depending on the question) and with the economic questions I tried to be as nuanced as possible; example: do I believe govt should fund arts, culture, and public broadcasting? Well, I do, but certainly not to the extent that I think a lot of people here would answer the question. So how do I indicate mild support for the proposition? I give it a 4 or maybe a 5, which combined with all of those 10s and Os moves up the scale toward progressive.
But what interests me is that Bill Dunn scored a 314. With a 206 I am a progressive and with a 314 he is extremely liberal. Does this mean (serious question) that the makers of this test define progressives as being less than liberal (hard to phrase, I think you know what I mean)?
This is interesting because last fall when DD and I discussed this, he said one difference between a progressive and a liberal is that a progressive would tend to be more pro-active in using the power of government to impose solutions than a liberal. It seems to me, by that standard, that this test is using a somewhat different distinction between progressive and liberal, but it may be that I am reading way too much into it.
Dr. N. – I think you hit the nail on the head. I think that a great deal of the typical libertarian platform would “progressive”, as in ‘making progress’. I think it takes a certain type of reflection or enlightenment to fisk “tradition” and be open to the cultural issues you mentioned (gay rights, for example). So yeah, I’m not surpised you’re labeled progressive.
And based on your synopsis of the previous discussion I’d disagree with DD. A progressive may want progess, change, to move forward… whatever. But that doesn’t necessarily mean gov’t is the catalyst of it.
358.
Do I have to turn in my Delaware Liberal credentials now?
DG
I’ll have to go back and look (or maybe DD can), but when we were having that discussion he cited a HuPo piece from 2006-2007 that used that definition of progressive.
It just amused me that if I’m a progressive at 206 (When the average poll score is 209.5) then it seems to me that the poll results are either (a) rigged so that the median is progressive; or (b) overwhelmingly progressives/liberals and not conservatives, moderates, and libertarians are taking the poll, which would have to tendency to sort of “move the middle” toward progressive and liberal.
That, of course, is the problem with all of these tests–not only the questions and the grading, but the fact that the people answering them are self-selected rather than chosen through any research methodology.
Ultimately, they are fun, but not that valuable.
I coworker of mine (science teacher) scored a 370. I’m just glad I’m not the “dirty liberal” of the school anymore. I’d be interested to see what it does to the lower end of the scale. 141 was called “extremely conservative”.
Steve, the test is for fun now. Did you click on the controlled results button at the end of the test? These are the results Nate Silver is charting.
At 200/400, I was considered “neutral”.
If I have time this evening, I’ll go back through it, question by question and try to figure out what slants the results the way it does.
Having said that, anyone scoring below 175 should put on a brown shirt, raise their right palm in front of themselves and say ” Ho Cheney”
pandora
For whatever reason, probably the browser on the computer I was using, clicking on that gave me nothing.
So I note from miscreant in #28 that my 206 was presumably only a few points away from being neutered.
Ultimately, they are fun, but not that valuable.
Can’t argue with that.
326/400 “Extremely Progressive”
“So I note from miscreant in #28 that my 206 was presumably only a few points away from being neutered.”
Ha! I prefer to think of it as open minded. By that standard, you’re nearly there.