Political compass accuracy

[Speed of Sound]

?

[Jake]

Not at all accurate. Scary thing is, some posters change political positions because of their scores.

[Speed of Sound]

Not at all accurate. Scary thing is, some posters change political positions because of their scores.

creepy.

[Ebowed]

Not at all accurate.

[Speed of Sound]

FTR I said Somewhat accurate.

[AuH2O]

In a lot of cases it flat out doesn't work.. i.e. mine. It works in too linear a fashion, such that I am a "moderate" Republican by its standards.

I still said "somewhat effective" because in cases of people with party-line type views I guess it works. Of course, that isn't very hard to program.

[afleitch]

I certainly don't like my score. I look like one of the most authoritarian/neo-liberal Democrats as a result, While I am neo-liberal I would say i was more libertarian as most other tests consider me to be.

[© tweed]

How do 'sort of' and 'somewhat' differ?  I'll vote 'somehat accurate'.

[Cashcow]

Not at all accurate. Scary thing is, some posters change political positions because of their scores.

Frightening indeed. Fortunately, most of us are not like True Idiot and take the PC as nothing more than an amusing diversion. My score represents me fairly well, but that is a matter of coincidence.

[angus]

I voted very accurate.  Moreover, it's somewhat precise, though not very.  I think the problem with the political compass test isn't its accuracy or precision, but the fact that so many posters here take it so seriously.  Jake pointed out that some posters here change positions based on the score, and I've noted that some even put their scores on their signatures.  Some have even created threads to predict how long dead people would have scored.  It's just a fun test, and for the purpose of comparison between one's own positions with other posters, who post here, and are alive and touched by the issues of the day, gives a general idea of where one might stand relative to the others.  I usually get around zero, or just a tad left of zero, around negative one.  In that vicinity, and it hasn't changed much over the time I've taken it.  Thus it's precise (reproducible) and accurate since, by and large, I am fairly centrist.  Like most americans, I'm neither a libertarian nor a socialist, but somewhere in between.  In my case, almost exactly in between, and when I've glanced at the scores of other posters they seem reasonable compared to me.  On the up/down axis, I generally score around negative 5.  This too is precise and doesn't change much in subsequent testing.  And its value implies that I might be the sort who doesn't favor restrictions on guns, abortions, drugs, and the like.  And that's pretty much true.  Though negative 5 probably puts me somewhere between one and two standard deviations from the mean on that chart (I'm guessing, as I haven't seen these stats), which would imply that somewhere between 5 and 16% of all posters favor even less restrictions than do I.  And in fact there are those posters here who think it's okay to have sex with small children, for example.  All in all, it's very accurate as a fun game, and somewhat precise.  And if you keep in mind that this is *not* intended to give you advice about which candidate to vote for or which party to support (although there are excellent websites for that kind of analysis), or think it tells you which posters ought to be your buddies and which posters ought to be your enemies, then you'll not have have problems with it.  Or, as King pointed out, it's just an amusing diversion.  And, as an amusing diversion, you should be amused that, in fact, the scores represent most posters well.  Though I'd suggest that its less likely coincidental and more likely algorithmic.  It is, after all, only a computer program.  And computers only do what you tell them to do.

[Cashcow]

Or, as King pointed out, it's just an amusing diversion.  And, as an amusing diversion, you should be amused that, in fact, the scores represent most posters well.  Though I'd suggest that its less likely coincidental and more likely algorithmic.  It is, after all, only a computer program.  And computers only do what you tell them to do.

We can rule out that notion based on the results of this poll. It is the right of the poster to decide whether or not the PC results represent his or her ideology, not the computer program.

[A18]

Not at all accurate. Scary thing is, some posters change political positions because of their scores.

Frightening indeed. Fortunately, most of us are not like True Idiot and take the PC as nothing more than an amusing diversion. My score represents me fairly well, but that is a matter of coincidence.

LOL. Who changes their positions?

[Cashcow]

Not at all accurate. Scary thing is, some posters change political positions because of their scores.

Frightening indeed. Fortunately, most of us are not like True Idiot and take the PC as nothing more than an amusing diversion. My score represents me fairly well, but that is a matter of coincidence.

LOL. Who changes their positions?

I think my post addressed that, but surely Jake can provide more examples.

[angus]

yes, and you rule that it represents you well, and I rule that it represents me well.  that coincidence?  possibly, but I think it has more to do with the fact that you honestly answered the questions, as did I, and didn't break a sweat and you're not thinking, "okay, this is for all the marbles:  Bush, Kerry, Badnarik, or Mickey Mouse.  This is going to decide something huge."  And you're not thinking, "okay, I'm a Republican, so how would a republican answer this?" or "I voted for Kucinich, so how would Kucinich answer this?"  Nor did you probably spend such a huge amount of your life pondering the questions that you talked yourself out of your true answer.  It's just a program someone developed, and like all programs, it's subject to the whims of its programmer.  I think the deeper question might be whether the programmer really has any idea what constitutes Left vs. Right and Anarchy vs. Authority.  I say he may be a tad off-base in specific instances, but if you take the time to go through it all, then the "noise" sort-of cancels and you get a reproducible (precise) and representative (accurate) result.  This is what I meant.  Mostly, I agree that it's just an amusement, a game, and should be taken as such.

By the way, somebody made a great compendium of all reported scores.  a list.  It's been a while, because I remember sitting in my apartment in California when I looked at it, and I moved from that apartment in August of 2004.  I remember seeing the coastal ranges above Safeway out of the third-floor windows.  I think it was Huckleberry Finn who made the list.  They were ranked Left to Right in one grouping, and High to Low in another grouping, something like that.  I remember seeing very few anomalies, in terms of relative ordering, based on posters' posts.  I think that's the extent of its usefulness.  Though I've seen threads as bizarre as "What would your town's PC score be?" and "Should I change my color to Green?" and "Should I become a Libertarian?"

yes, I impugned the test liberally in that thread, and others, but mostly as a reminder not to take it too seriously, but not to cast aspersions on the ability of the programmer to match up answers with his preconceived notions of what constitutes Left, Right, Up, and Down.

[Speed of Sound]

How do 'sort of' and 'somewhat' differ?  I'll vote 'somehat accurate'.

ive grown up knowing somewhat to be better than sort of. Maybe its just a Pikeville thing.