Fire and Ice questionnaire

[Joy Anne]

A local newspaper columnist asked his readers to answer this questionnaire and send him the results:
http://fireandice.environics.net/surveys/fireandice/main/fireandiceDemographic.asp

So I did, and then asked friends on a list to take it, too. All 20-some of us wound up in the same quadrant. Most of us are USian and left of center, but some are Canadian or Australian, and some are staunch Republicans.

If anyone's got some time to waste, could you take this poll and tell me where you wound up?

[calico1]

1. Bottom right hand quadrant

"Idealism and Autonomy."

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Ditto for me...

n/t

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. I'm bottom right "Idealism and Autonomy " quadrant.

Pretty far to the bottom and just to the right of center in the quadrant.

Those with values that place them in the lower right primarily search for personal control, and are open-minded, flexible and idealistic. And finally, individuals in the lower left pursue, above all else, novelty, excitement and risk.

FSC

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Right in the middle of the

Idealism & Autonomy quadrant. It seems a good fit for me though I haven't looked at the characteristics of other quadrants and don't have time for that now.

[LWolf]

5. Sure.

I'm in the idealism and autonomy quadrant.

...those with values that place them in the lower right primarily search for personal control, and are open-minded, flexible and idealistic.

Fundamental Motivations and Values

Personal Control
Question Authority
Global Consciousness
Adaptability to Complexity
Flexible Families


Key Characteristics

Self-reliant and in control of their own destiny
Idealistic and open-minded
Rejecting out-dated norms and institutions

As you can see, I fall pretty far to the south and east:

http://fireandice.environics.net/surveys/fireandice/imageGen.asp?sid=1&x=1.94&y=-1.68&sidImage=true

[Village Idiot]

6. Idealism & Autonomy Quadrant

Idealism & Autonomy Quadrant - me too.....

[maxpower]

7. Idealism & Autonomy

Sounds about right

[radfringe]

32. Idealism & Autonomy Quadrant

Idealism & Autonomy Quadrant
.............|.............
.............|.............
=======|========
.............|.............
.............|....X........


Fundamental Motivations and Values
Personal Control
Question Authority
Global Consciousness
Adaptability to Complexity
Flexible Families

Key Characteristics
Self-reliant and in control of their own destiny
Idealistic and open-minded
Rejecting out-dated norms and institutions

[BlueJazz]

8. Extreme bottom right..

Hey..I'm not called "Radicalliberal" for nothin'....

[On the Road]

9. Lower Right (Idealism and Autonomy, Exploration and Flexibility)

I always wonder about these test how people can consistently choose the opposite responses. I can't imagine large numbers of people agreeing with statements like:

It's acceptable to use physical force to get something you really want. The important thing is to get what you want.

Non-whites should not be allowed to immigrate to our country.

It's important to me that people admire the things I own.

On the other hand, out of complete honesty, I did have to agree with the following:

Violence can sometimes be exciting

[Meldread]

10. Fell within the Lower Right Quadrant

Labeled as "Idealism & Autonomy".

It's pretty broad, although I do think I fit within that structure.

[supernova]

11. Idealism & Autonomy

Fun quiz

[GliderGuider]

12. All the way into the bottom right corner

Yer basic post-modern liberal, that would be me :)

I saw Michael Adams speak at IdeaCity04 in June in Toronto. Now there's a guy that can make you feel button-busting proud to be a Canuck. No bias there, no siree!

[Nashyra]

17. Bottom Roght Quadrant

Although within that quadrant I was on the upper east side of the quadrant.

[JHB]

13. Looks Like a Sweep...

Idealism & Autonomy too...

[RebelOne]

14. Seems like all of us are in the "Idealism and Autonomy" quadrant.

Does that mean that all Democrats think alike?

[mrboba1]

16. Just us radical

DUers!!

[shirlden]

15. Yep, me too

Lower Right.
Fun quiz.

Would like to see if any member of the DU board falls outside that quadrant.

:kick:

[cosmicaug]

18. Somewhere down there.

Extreme bottom, Extreme right.

On Edit: Spelling.

[mrboba1]

19. I didn't quite know what to make of this question:

About strict rules for children. I believe there should be strict rules for children, but very VERY few of them. I'm sure that kicked up my individuality/authority figure (but I was still way within the 4th quadrent.

[Meldread]

26. I said I agree some what.

I was raised under fairly strict parents, although they were no where as strict as they could have been -- mostly overly protective (well it seemed that way then). I *DO* think children benefit from having discipline in their lives as it creates stability and helps build character, but at the same time I don't think such discipline should come at the cost of individuality or freedom. It's walking the swords edge so to speak, and varies from person to person.

Like for example my parents could have been far more lenient with me than my sister. I was always more likely to "do the right thing", whereas she was always more susceptible to peer pressure and the like.

I've come to respect how protective my parents were of me when I was a kid, although at the same time I feel that it negatively impacted me in the sense that it made me some what naive about the world around me.

[nickinSTL]

20. Idealism and Autonomy

Heh. Another one. almost all the way to the right, and about 3/4 of the way down.

[NoPasaran]

21. Another Autonomous Idealist

Interesting survey. At least I'm not being penalized for knowing what a number 3 on the back of a car means.

[iverglas]

22. as far the the right as you can get

(jeez, that's a novelty!)

and just above the bottom line, in the right bottom quadrant -- i.e. not quite in the farthest bottom-right corner.

You might be interested in more info about that "father should be the head of the household" question. Environics has been using that one, in particular, to measure social attitudes around the world, for several years -- and specifically to measure the shift to the right in the US, while the rest of us keep shifting to the left. "Right" and "left" in real-world terms, that is.

http://erg.environics.net/news/default.asp?aID=456

Here, father doesn't know best
The Globe and Mail,
Wednesday, July 4, 2001

by: Michael Adams

Nearly 20 years ago, my colleagues at Environics in Toronto and CROP in Montreal began a study of Canadian social values. In our first survey of Canadian values in 1983, we asked Canadians if they strongly or somewhat agreed or disagreed that: "The father of the family must be the master in his own house." We posed more than 100 such questions to respondents that year. Our intention was to track these 100 items over time, dropping some, adding others; we hoped we'd measure what was important to Canadians or what was changing in our values and perspectives on life.

The "father must be master" question has become legendary at Environics. We love it because it measures a traditional, patriarchal attitude to authority in our most cherished institution: the family. Sons inherit the land, starting with the first -- primogeniture prevents estates from being subdivided like amoebas. Sons inherit the family business as in Smith and Son. Sons, not daughters, are named "Junior" in the hope they will prove worthy of their father's aristocratic seed.

... In Canada, almost everyone was part of this revolution, even men, who by 2000 had only 23 per cent of their numbers in support of dad being boss at home. The 60-plus group showed the largest drop: In 1992, 40 per cent thought father should be master, but by 2000, only 26 per cent of this age group said so. The highest-income category was also the most progressive (only 12 per cent of those earning $60,000 or more believed dad should be king of his castle). Married and single people were exactly the same.

Meanwhile, we found that where 42 per cent of Americans believed the father should be master in 1992, the number increased to 44 per cent in 1996. We wondered if this was a statistical anomaly. We went back into the field in 2000 to find out if the frontal assault on patriarchal authority by U.S. president Bill Clinton and television icon Homer Simpson would bring U.S. numbers more into line with those in Canada and France.

This time, 48 per cent of Americans said the father of the family must be master in his own home; 51 per cent disagreed and 1 per cent had no opinion. We were stunned.

Worth reading the whole thing.

[iverglas]

24. ^^ that post wasn't really about *moi* ^^

The article it links to, by the author of "Fire and Ice", explains how the social attitudes in question are measured and tracked -- and specifically how very different attitudes toward authority are in the US from in other comparable countries -- and is really worth reading.

[hatrack]

23. Center Lower Right

Hmm, could this be . . . (gasp!) . . . a trend??

[ChocolateSaltyBalls]

25. Yet another 'Idealism and Autonomy'.........

quadrant sitter here.

[leftofthedial]

27. far bottom right

[Joy Anne]

28. The newspaper columnist responds:

I emailed him to ask why everyone on this blog and on my copyeditors' list wound up in "my" quadrant. He said everyone who took it in the newspaper office is in this quadrant, too, and he's interviewing the study's authors soon in hopes of getting an answer.

He also noted that this is a short form of the questionnaire and that the whole thing takes 3 to 4 hours.

[TreasonousBastard]

29. Well...

perhaps we're all the good guys.

I managed to get on the upper left quadrant when I lied about violence and family stuff and tried to answer like a mysoginist wingnut, so it can be done.

But, it seems like the questions didn't leave much room for the middle ground. You are a violent wingnut or a dreamer.

The long test would probably be a bit fairer.

[iverglas]

30. and then there's the article I linked to

in post 22. The author's explanation of the particular question regarding the belief that the father must be the head of the household (which was on the quiz we all took), and how a positive response to that question in itself is very indicative of an authoritarian mindset -- and how nearly 50% of USAmericans recently agreed with that statement: http://erg.environics.net/news/default.asp?aID=456

The proportion in France favouring patriarchal leadership had also declined from 61 per cent in 1975 to 30 per cent in 2000. ...

Meanwhile, we found that where 42 per cent of Americans believed the father should be master in 1992, the number increased to 44 per cent in 1996. We wondered if this was a statistical anomaly. We went back into the field in 2000 ... . This time, 48 per cent of Americans said the father of the family must be master in his own home; 51 per cent disagreed and 1 per cent had no opinion.

Even in New England, where USAmerican respondents were least likely to agree with the statement, agreement was essentially as high as in France: 29%. In the deep south, 71% agreed.

There really are a lot of people out there in the USAmerican heartland who aren't autonomous idealists.

[Meldread]

31. kick

:kick: I liked this test.

[Joy Anne]

33. update

I'll post what the columnist writes about his interview.

[neverborn]

34. I&A

[Spider Jerusalem]

35. Bottom right...

hm. Flawed methodology? Results seem too consistent, somehow. You'd expect SOME variation.