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Re: Political compass poll
Posted By: frum, on host 68.144.51.115
Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2003, at 16:05:18
In Reply To: Re: Political compass poll posted by Sam on Wednesday, October 8, 2003, at 08:09:01:

> > > I don't get it. You must agree to both premises to agree to the proposition as a whole, right? If you feel that either is incorrect, you disagree. I agree with the first half and disagree with the second, and as such disagreed with the entire proposition. I don't see how somebody who supported the second half and not the first could agree to it, either.
> >
> > I see what Sam's saying. If you disagree, depending on which part of the sentence you disagree with, your views could be labeled differently.
>
> Right. There are three viable beliefs that I see here. Lirelyn is correct that rejecting the first premise and accepting the second doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
>
> #1. You believe that society should be open about sex, and society has not gone too far with this openness. Your answer is "disagree," and your views reflect the "open" extreme.
>
> #2. You believe that society should be open about sex, but society has gone too far with this openness. Your answer is "agree," and your views reflect a central position.
>
> #3. You believe that society should not be open about sex. Your answer is "disagree," and your views reflect the "closed" extreme.
>
> There is no way for the scripts that run the survey to differentiate between #1 and #3, despite that they represent diametrically opposing views.

That's true, and it is badly written. I think it very likely that the first premise is the inconsequential one; for the poll, the second is almost certainly the point that counts for the survey.

The vagueness of the premises doesn't help, either. But I think most of the premises in the poll are much too vague, and the results have a similar character.

frum

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