The simple visual test that might predict political views

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A slight correction is needed. There’s no such thing as a perfect geometrical shape in real life, and even if there was you couldn’t see it or interact with it. There are only varying degrees of imperfection.

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Hey man, don’t be, like, such a square, man.

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I don’t know if I’m the exception or not. I’m, as far as I can tell, only “moderately conservative” (I support LGBT issues and I hate ALL current Republican candidates, and I hate “big Church” and Robertsonians), but I tend to parse questions literally, and if it’s “imperfect geometry” I’ll mark it as such. So what does that make me? Wishy-washy? :smiley:

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What does it say about me politically that I am not sure that oblongs and ovals deserve to be called perfect shapes?

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They’re all perfectly shaped. They just all have different shapes.

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I seem to have read something recently about some differences between liberals and conservatives in that conservatives place stronger emphasis on in-group and out-group classifications. This may be a manifestation of that idea.

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I wonder how many current/former math/geometry teachers were in the set of respondents…

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It’s all about smell…light a scented candle & turn a conservative into a liberal?

Disgust and the Politics of Sex: Exposure to a Disgusting Odorant Increases Politically Conservative Views on Sex and Decreases Support for Gay Marriage

Thomas G. Adams,
Patrick A. Stewart ,
John C. Blanchar

PLOS

Published: May 5, 2014
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095572

Abstract

Disgust has been implicated as a potential causal agent underlying socio-political attitudes and behaviors. Several recent studies have suggested that pathogen disgust may be a causal mechanism underlying social conservatism. However, the specificity of this effect is still in question. The present study tested the effects of disgust on a range of policy preferences to clarify whether disgust is generally implicated in political conservatism across public policy attitudes or is uniquely related to specific content domains. Self-reported socio-political attitudes were compared between participants in two experimental conditions: 1) an odorless control condition, and 2) a disgusting odor condition. In keeping with previous research, the present study showed that exposure to a disgusting odor increased endorsement of socially conservative attitudes related to sexuality. In particular, there was a strong and consistent link between induced disgust and less support for gay marriage.

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Awww, pedantry is adorkable!

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I feel like I want to hate this study as a really subtle way to identify some very overt characteristics.

I’m Liberal as the dickens but a strict Geometricist, so consider me an outlier of “that’s not a triangle” but fine about giving people healthcare and maybe not buying so many guns for everyone.

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Then you will like my new study, which predicts people’s political views based on how they feel about the shape study.

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What does it predict about my political views?

Will you hurry up with that, already? I need you to publish so that I can start my study, which predicts people’s political views based on how they feel about your study!

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[quote=“KarlS, post:5, topic:70756, full:true”]
What does it say about me politically that I am not sure that oblongs and ovals deserve to be called perfect shapes
[/quote] I dunno about politically, but it does suggest that maybe you’re not familiar with the mathematical elegance and simplicity of the ellipse. (-:

"Oval’ describes roughly elliptical shapes much the way “round” describes roughly circular shapes. The ellipse, a mathematically-precise conic section, is the geometrically-perfect shape that oval shapes resemble.

And of course circles are ellipses with an eccentricity of zero.

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“Normal” used to be a strictly geometric term, meaning at 90 degrees to. So calling a conformist “Square” is kind of circular logic.

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It makes it statistics. Not everyone is on the tentpole of the bellcurve.

The report has a whiff of p-hacking:
"This effect was specific to policies that targeted deviant groups (Study 3) and who were not too highly deviant (Study 4):

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Your most likely political views:

85% Octarchy
81% Thalassocracy ‎
71% You, for one, welcome our new insect overlords
63% Pedantocracy

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