Social Attitude Test

2013-08-26 Hans Eyssenck

Saw this social attitude test (mostly about politics) earlier today. It claims to be based on the work of Hans Eysenck, who was a famous but also controversial research psychologist. (At the time of his death in 1997, he was the most frequently cited psychologist in academic literature.) My scores were:

Radicalism 61
Socialism 18.75
Tenderness 75

These are on a 0 – 100 scales with the starting point at 50, so it means I’m slightly radical, very much not a socialist, and tender” (whatever that means). Apparently this makes me a laissez faire capitalist, a moderate progressive, and a libertarian all at once. In other words: ” the political profile one might associate with an animal rights activist”. Sounds like a strange description of a social conservative, but if you factor in that I think unborn human beings are in more need of protection than animals this is actually just about right.

I’m curious to see what other people get.

17 thoughts on “Social Attitude Test”

  1. Radicalism 36.25
    Socialism 6.25
    Tenderness 75

    “These scores indicate that you are a tender-minded moderate conservative; this is the political profile one might associate with a sincere clergyman. It appears that you are trusting of religion, and have a compassionately humanistic attitude towards humanity in general.

    Your attitudes towards economics appear laissez-faire capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as right-wing.

    To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, an egalitarian with few strong opinions.”

    Cool. This survey was a lot easier to know my answers than that economics one. I gave up quickly with that one because I was completely at a loss. I’d say this one hit the nail on the head pretty good, at least considering what I think of myself and my views.

  2. Funny, I took this yesterday and thought of sending it along to you.

    Here were my results:

    Radicalism 52.75
    Socialism 25
    Tenderness 75
    These scores indicate that you are a tender-minded moderate; this is the political profile one might associate with a protective parent. It appears that you are accepting of religion, and have a generally optimistic attitude towards humanity in general. Your attitudes towards economics appear capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as libertarian. To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, an egalitarian with few strong opinions.

    That sounds about right. Glad to see we’re both the same in tenderness :-)

  3. Interesting results so far. We’re all on the same side of socialism (with varying degrees), we’re on both sides of radicalism, and we’re all exactly the same on tenderness.

  4. Radicalism – 91.25
    Socialism – 25
    Tenderness – 50

    “These scores indicate that you are a progressive; this is the political profile one might associate with a university professor. It appears that you are skeptical towards religion, and have a pragmatic attitude towards humanity in general. Your attitudes towards economics appear capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as libertarian. To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, a centrist with several strong opinions.”

    This seems about right, though it probably underrated me a bit on tenderness and socialism because I wasn’t sure how to answer some of the questions. I think emotion and following the heart is important, but only when kept within certain boundaries. So I answered a lot of the questions as if I was anti-emotion, whereas really all I want is for people to use the right cognitive tools for the right jobs. I also didn’t quite know what definition to use of “capitalism.” I said capitalism works, but in my opinion it works in large part because of governments and regulatory agencies that facilitate the workings of the market. I think a well-regulated market is the purest form of capitalism, because regulators protect the conditions Adam Smith identified as pre-requisites for the market’s proper functioning. However, I doubt most of my conservative friends would agree. They tend to think capitalism means economic anarchy: freedom to externalize costs, ruin the environment, hoard economic opportunity, and make unlimited use of money as an instrument of political power.

  5. Radicalism 61
    Socialism 12.5
    Tenderness 46.875

    “These scores indicate that you are a moderate progressive; this is the political profile one might associate with a university professor. It appears that you are skeptical towards religion, and have a pragmatic attitude towards humanity in general. Your attitudes towards economics appear laissez-faire capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as libertarian. To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, an idealist with very few strong opinions.”

    As Chris said, I think I got shortchanged on the “tenderness” part because “I wasn’t sure how to answer some of the questions. I think emotion and following the heart is important, but only when kept within certain boundaries. So I answered a lot of the questions as if I was anti-emotion, whereas really all I want is for people to use the right cognitive tools for the right jobs.”

    Either that or I’m hard-hearted because I’m a greedy capitalist pig.

  6. Radicalism 47.25
    Socialism 12.5
    Tenderness 75

    These scores indicate that you are a tender-minded moderate; this is the political profile one might associate with a protective parent. It appears that you are accepting of religion, and have a generally optimistic attitude towards humanity in general.

    Your attitudes towards economics appear laissez-faire capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as right-wing.

    To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, an egalitarian with few strong opinions.

    ————–

    I think it’s less about my not having strong opinions and more about my over-analyzing and realizing that there are always special circumstances that may need consideration.

  7. “I think it’s less about my not having strong opinions and more about my over-analyzing and realizing that there are always special circumstances that may need consideration.”

    ^^ This.

  8. This was fun.

    Radicalism 85.75
    Socialism 18.75
    Tenderness 37.5

    These scores indicate that you are a tough-minded progressive; this is the political profile one might associate with a liberated atheist. It appears that you are cynical towards religion, and have a suspicious and unsympathetic attitude towards humanity in general.

    Your attitudes towards economics appear laissez-faire capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as libertarian.

    To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, a centrist with few strong opinions.

  9. Radicalism 50
    Socialism 93.75
    Tenderness 87.5

    These scores indicate that you are a very tender-minded moderate; this is the political profile one might associate with a protective parent. It appears that you are accepting of religion, and have a generally optimistic attitude towards humanity in general.

    Your attitudes towards economics appear communist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as left-wing.

    To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, an egalitarian with several strong opinions.

  10. Radicalism 63.75
    Socialism 18.75
    Tenderness 62.5

    “These scores indicate that you are a tender-minded moderate progressive; this is the political profile one might associate with an animal rights activist. It appears that you are moderate towards religion, and have a balanced attitude towards humanity in general.

    Your attitudes towards economics appear laissez-faire capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as libertarian.

    To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, an idealist with few strong opinions.”

    I think this is pretty spot-on, as I do consider myself a Libertarian of sorts. Except for the animal rights activist part. I’m not really sure where that came from.

  11. Eric-

    I think this is pretty spot-on, as I do consider myself a Libertarian of sorts. Except for the animal rights activist part. I’m not really sure where that came from. I think it comes from the high tenderness score, which I gather is some measure of empathy towards others. I think that it spits out “animal rights” because it’s not sure what else to do with people who are economic libertarians and have high empathy.

  12. Radicalism 39
    Socialism 25
    Tenderness 56.25

    These scores indicate that you are a moderate conservative; this is the political profile one might associate with a police officer. It appears that you are accepting of religion, and have a generally optimistic attitude towards humanity in general.

    Your attitudes towards economics appear capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as right-wing.

    To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, an idealist with few strong opinions.

    Interesting…and pretty accurate. I live and let live for the most part and there are only a few lines I draw in restricting actions of others.

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