RationalWiki:Moral Matrix

The "Moral Matrix" test is available here.

Note: When taking the test, make sure to always check "Show Hints". The wording of most of their choices is iffy, but the Hints explain the rationale behind each possible answer. If you don't verify the implications of picking an answer using the Hints, you will get a wrong score. -- Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 18:30, 10 January 2008 (EST)

Introduction[edit]

Before I had ever heard of the widely known political Compass test at politicalcompass.org, I found a different one, which I have always preferred. The test is based off the excellent book Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know That Liberals Don't by Prof. George Lakoff. It's designed to probe the moral reasoning behind your stances on the issues, rather than just asking what your positions are. The book, and hence the test, was written to explain America's peculiar brand of politics, so it may not be as applicable to other countries. Well, anyone up for taking it? -- Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 18:23, 10 January 2008 (EST)

Explanation & Results[edit]

"Moral Order" (horizontal axis) represents the structure of your moral hierarchy. Towards the right, you believe that morality requires many "levels" of moral authority, and that we must respect these many levels, and defer to those higher up than us. For example, one moral hierarchy of this nature could have God at the very top, then religious leaders, then other people, then children, then criminals, then animals, etc. Towards the left, you believe in a greater degree of equality, with fewer levels of moral authority. On the most extreme end, you may even believe in only one level, that all beings are morally equal.

"Moral Rules" (vertical axis) represents what behaviors you believe would best benefit society. Towards the bottom, you believe that people benefit the most by prioritizing the actions of individuals. Towards the top, you believe that people benefit the most by prioritizing collective initiatives.

The scale is -8 to 8 for both axis.

Results[edit]

Here there be Schlafly

↑
Societal

Moral rules

Individual
↓

← Egalitarian Moral order Judgemental →

Blue: MO: -4, MR: -6 (view)
Mr. Anon: MO: -2, MR: 3 (view)
Maratrean: MO: -4, MR: 2 (view)
Human: MO: -4.5, MR: 3.5 (view)
TK: MO: -1.5, MR: 1 (view)
Nx: MO: -7, MR: 6.5 (view)
DeltaStar: MO: -3, MR: -1 (view)
Bil08: MO: -2.5, MR: 3.5 (view) - I also gave what I thought ASchlafly's answers would be (and I was fair on the guy) and got MO: 6.5 MR: -7
Frummidge: MO: -2, MR: 3 (view) - I like this test's concept.
ListenerX: MO: 1.5, MR: -8 (view)
Armondikov: MO: -4.5, MR: 3 (view)
Aboriginal Noise: MO: -3.5, MR: -0.5 (view)
Thedictator: MO: +0.5, MR: +7 (view)
Nutty Roux: MO: -6, MR: +6.5 (view)
Psygremlin: MO: -3, MR: -0.5 (view)
Tmtoulouse: MO: -4.5, MR: 0.5 (view)
Edgerunner76: MO: -3.5, MR: 4 (view)
Javascap: MO: -6.5, MR: 4.5 (view)
Klapaucius: MO: -4.5, MR: 3 (view)
Arcan: MO: -6, MR: 1.5 (view)
SirChuckB: MO: -5, MR: 4 (view)
MDB: MO: -5, MR: 3 (view)
Π: MO: -1, MR: 0 (view)
DickTurpis: MO: -8, MR: 0 (view)
Socal212: MO: -3, MR: 0 (view)
damo: MO: -5, MR: 4 (view)
Raysenn: MO: -7, MR: 7 (view)

Old results[edit]

Please convert these to the new matrix above

Radioactive afikomen— Moral Order: -4.5, Moral Rules: 5.0
SusanG— MO: -4.5, MR: 6
GrandSoviet— MO: -3, MR: -3.5
Doggedpersistence— MO: -5, MR: 3 (w/o hints)
- MO: -3, MR: 1.5 (w/ hints)
Cracker— MO: -5, MR: 3.5
Kels— MO: -3.5, MR: 3.5
Human— MO: -4.5, MR: 3.5
Uchiha— MO: -5, MR: 1
Andy (projected)— MO: 7.5, MR: -8
BillOhannity— MO: -4.5, MR: 3
Pinto's5150 ^Talk— MO: -3, MR: -3
Bayes— MO: -1, MR: -2
User:Bob M— MO: -5, MR: 4
Ed @^{but not the Poor one!}— MO: -4, MR: 6
Genghis— MO: -2, MR: -1
User:Silver Sloth— MO -6, MR 1.5 (Godless commie and proud of it)
User:Gulik— MO: -3.00, MR: 4. (I notice there's a few questions in this test that made me think "That's not an 'or' question--where I'd agree with multiple answers.)
Lurker MO: 1.5, MR -6.0. I love that I'm a bit of an outlier, but I think I found a flaw in the test, because this doesn't accuratly describe my political position.
Spica MO: -4.5, MR: 6.
Researcher MO: -4.5, MR: 1 -- I actually disagree with its idea of socialism, but what do I know?
AKjeldsen MO: -3, MR 2 (Social Democrat) -- I'd probably rather label myself a Social Liberal, but whatever.
TK MO: -1.5 MR: 1 Something is amiss, because I don't really view myself as a socialist. --TK_/MyTalk^{Lowly editor} 04:02, 14 January 2008 (EST)
ajkgordon MO: -4, MR: 2.5. I imagine it's designed for septics because some of the questions for me were simply WTF? No relevance. Interesting nonetheless but probably irrelevant to us Yuropeans. Ajkgordon 05:13, 14 January 2008 (EST)
NightFlare MO: -3, MR: 1.5. Did I pass?
BeastmasterGeneral MO:-5, MR:4.5 (3 tildas for name only).
Master Bra'tac ^Kree!MO: -1.5; MR: 0.5.
PoorEd MO: -5, MR 3.5
Anonymous MO 6, MR -4.5 (I be a Dragon)
Off eep MO:-3.5, MR 1. Don't leave me out on the fun!
Secret Squirrel MO 0 , MR -2.5
Г☭длессЛиберал MO -6, MR 4.5
Linus^{(plot evil tech)}: -5 MO, +5 MR
User:PalMD- MO: -5, MR: +2.5
User:Tmtoulouse - MO: -5, MR: +2.5
PFoster— Moral Order: -7, Moral Rules: 6
Stile4aly: -2, -2. I'm nothing if not balanced.
ŖєuĻєux ^{say wнäτ?} - MO: -4.5, MR: 3
מְתֻרְגְּמָן ^{שְׁלֹום} - Moral Order -5, Moral Rules 7. o.O
User:TimS: MO: -2, MR: 0.5
Icewedge: -3 on Moral Order and 3 on Moral Rules.
user:Bondurant: MO: -6.5, MR: 2.5 - I think Political Compass is probably more suited to those of us from the UK, IMHO.
Ryan T. / gggg? — MO: -6 MR: 1
Hoji^die! MO: -5, MR: 6
Kirkburn: -6.5, 4
ColinR: -1,-7.5
Barikada: -1, -0.5 (w/o hints)
Arcan: -4.5, 1.5 (but like a true OCD English major, I over-analyzed far too many of these questions)
Horace: MO: -1.5, MR: 1 FUCK! - I got the same score as TK.
Damo2353: -5, 4
Shangrala: -6.5 (MO) 0.5 (MR)
Marcus Cicero: -3.5 (order) +3 (rules) - Not terribly accurate, answers too vague... And I don't consider myself a socialist.
dream ^ing_{Hail Eris!}: Moral Order: -5.5. Moral Rules: -7.5. I actually disagree with all the answers or agree with multiple for this test, so I'm not sure how much I like it.
User:Bil08: MO: -2.5 MR: 3.5 - I also gave what I thought ASchlafly's answers would be (and I was fair on the guy) and got MO: 6.5 MR: -7
User:Frummidge: MO: -2 MR: 3 - I like this test's concept.
User:ListenerX: MO 1.5, MR -8.

Overall combined results of all respondents to the test[edit]

These results represent over 406,600 respondents' answers.

The following was taken from Moral Politics, owner and originator of the Moral Politics test.

TEST DISTRIBUTION
Of the 406,619 respondents:

1. 29.17% liked Socialism.

2. 6.56% liked Authoritarianism.

3. 19.74% liked Conservatism.

4. 23.72% liked Liberalism.

5. 20.81% straddled systems.

AVERAGE Average score (red marker):

1. Moral Order: -0.12

2. Moral Rules: -0.07

ANALYSIS
The most popular answer[s] and the average score are centered. This suggests that the test may not [be] biased in any direction. Respondents seem distributed along a diagonal Socialism[-]Conservativism line.

I'm not sure about this. I suspect that the the test is set up to put the average American Joe in the center. As I am told that the average American Joe is a long way to the right of the rest of the world that distorts the rest of the world's answers.--Bob ^{bing up} 05:21, 11 January 2008 (EST)

*Ahem* Read the Explanation section. And they do break down the responses and display them by country (although that part of the site is down; when I was last at the site it was working). I will break down the number of respondents from each country for you though, Mr. Doubting Thomas:

United States: 241,097; United Kingdom: 23,934; Canada: 23,571; Poland: 15,891; unknown: 15,337; Portugal: 11,898; Sweden: 10,561; Australia: 8,143; European Union: 5,617; Germany: 5,534; Netherlands: 5,193; Denmark: 4,561; Finland: 3,589; France: 2,957; Spain: 2,698; Brazil: 2,347; Norway: 1,677; New Zealand: 1,604; Belgium: 1,392; Italy: 1,232; Ireland: 1,088; Romania: 1,001; Hungary: 969; Slovenia: 656; Israel: 636; Switzerland: 632; Japan: 616; Austria: 609; Greece: 567; Czech Republic: 544; Argentina: 540; Slovakia/Slovak Republic: 501.

This isn't all of them, if you want the full list go here. --

Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 06:08, 11 January 2008 (EST)

I call shenanigans!!! First, over half of respondents are USians. Second, they "claim" to be neutral 'cause the average is close to 0,0. But it's not. It's a full point to the "north". By the way, their graph suck because it lacks coordinates. Also, remember that their whole "perspective" came from some right wing US guy's book. Where were the questionms about school prayer, eh?. I prefer the zillion question PC site, myself. The axes on this one are just weird. But it was still all good fun. Like taking "internet tests" - deeply meaningful. human

06:38, 11 January 2008 (EST)

Actually, George Lakoff himself is solidly left-wing. The people who wrote the test are all right-wing, but they liked the ideas in his book enough to make the test. --

Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 06:49, 11 January 2008 (EST)

Oh, and just for that comment I'm going to make your dot ugly :) --

Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 06:51, 11 January 2008 (EST)

General look at RationalWikians' responses[edit]

Finished Graph[edit]

There! It's done (again)! -- Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 17:24, 21 January 2008 (EST)
Most current version in! -- Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 04:06, 25 January 2008 (EST)

Userbox[edit]

This user's Moral Politics results are {{{1}}},{{{2}}}.

Everyone can now put this convenient userbox on their userpage. ŖєuĻєux ^{say wнäτ?} 23:00, 27 January 2008 (EST)