After having heard a few people talk about this new "vote compass" on the CBC website, I decided to try it out. After answering 30 questions, their compass pegged me about where I should be on the spectrum, but they had the Conservatives slotted really far to the right. As one commentor said on an earlier post, I would be really interested to see the algorithm they are using. If anyone had the patience to take the test 30 times and recording answers and results, you could work out the math without having the original formula. Truthfully I don't care enough about the CBC vote compass to waste 5 hours of my life measuring it empirically.
It put me roughly where I belonged, but I'd be curious to know if any of you experienced erroneous results.
I put in my choices that show me as a somewhat centrist libertarian, small government type on every other test and it came back — Liberal. So I started trying to move it by changing answers. Always Liberal, although the circle would change shape and the party logos would move around (and only once did the LPC logo actually land inside the circle).
ReplyDeleteFlawed algorithm, unless what you want to do is influence the lightly-affiliated.
I thought it was funny because every other test I have taken it pegged me as a libertarian with conservative leanings, but on this it said I was a hard right conservative. I wonder what my wife would be; she is to the right of me on a variety of issues. When you look at the final taget type graph it has the liberals as centered more than the consevatives.
ReplyDeleteI was slightly to the right of Attila the Hun ;-)
ReplyDeleteI tried it and I chose either "neither agree or disagree" or don't know (including those 5 questions at the end. I still came up Liberal. Who did CBC get to do their logic for this web app? Just go to show you that the CBC is past its usefulness.
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing as Anon 1:32 and it came up with Liberal, and, I was furthest away from the NDP. Wonder what that cost us.
ReplyDeletebillg
Earlier today, flipped over to CBC News channel and CBC commentator is on with someone from the company who developed this app ...
ReplyDeleteThey were talking about some of the choice boxes and how it takes about 10 minutes ... then the Commentator says 'he like being contrary so selected "I Don't Know" for every choice.
He then says ..."and it came up Vote Liberal"
Well the look on the Vote Compass app guy was priceless. He didn't seem to know what to say. Finally mumbled something about well you can try changing this or that. Talk about Bogus! (kinda like the Power and Politics Question of the Day results.
Once this gets out I wonder how long it will take them to reprogram the LIBERAL as Default choice?
The problem with using a compass supplied by the CBC is that it only points one way. Which, of course, renders it absolutely useless when trying to remove yourself from the political wilderness....
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Just another deceptive liberal tool.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty accurate with me, pegged me as a conservative. But it was quite revealing seeing the NDP. Bloc, and Liberals all huddled right beside each other with the Conservatives waaaaayyyy far right. As always, CBC's bias is blatantly showing.
ReplyDeleteWell, the CBC's bias shows in the selection of U of T types, apparently, to design the thing.
ReplyDeleteAh, to have been a fly on the wall in the interview/planning sessions.
I'd like to see what they do with the data.
I was pegged in the fourth quadrant as very socially conservative and very fiscally conservative. I'd say that's pretty accurate.
ReplyDeleteI followed up on the "Don't know" test with picking the middle "don't agree or disagree" and guess what?
ReplyDeleteIt came out that the party I should vote for is the Liberals and the vote I would be most opposed to would be the NDP.
One would think that if the questions are neutral taking this approach that everythign is swell, the compass should point for the status quo and direct me to the party that garnered the plurality of votes in the last election - the CPC.
So my previous test intrigued me so I went through again answering "don't agree or disagree" except when it came to the ratings of 0-10 on the leaders. In each of those cases I gave Harper a 10 and Ignatieff a zero.
ReplyDeleteOn the party preference screen I gave the CPC full 10s and the Liberals zero.
The results: I should still vote Liberal, and I am still furthest from NDP.
Funny how that works out.
Check this out:
ReplyDeletehttp://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/CanadaVotes/2011/03/29/17798811.html
Tory bloggers need to raise a stink about this.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/decision2011/2011/03/29/17798821.html
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kathy Brock, a political science prof at Queen's agrees:
“I think there is a flaw in the mechanism” that causes the survey to default to Liberal, she said.
“If you’re giving the opposite response and getting the same result, that’s not correct,” she said.
Anne in swON
CBC bought advertising on my website for their vote compass. Ads are done via a bidding process with Google Adsense, and bloggers have no control over who buys ads. I made $15 today in tax payers money.
ReplyDeleteI thought the whole thing was bogus. It pegged me as mildly fiscal/serious social conservative. Which was the wrong way round. So I selected taxation as my only extra important factor and it moved me to MORE social and LESS fiscal conservative. In engineering terms, it's bust.
ReplyDeleteReport it to the CBC ombudsman
ReplyDeleteI answered "strongly agree" to all questions and got Liberal. Then I answered "strongly disagree" to all questions and got Liberal. Then I answered "neither agree nor disagree" to all questions and again got Liberal. Does that seem right to anyone? I think not
ReplyDeleteThere has been talk that Vote Compass is biased. I completed the Vote Compass questions and, based on my political views, it produced the expected result. There is bias however, and it exists in how the results are presented. The graph places all left-leaning parties and views "above the line" and places all right-leaning parties and views "below the line". The result is a subliminal, if not overt, message that left-leaning parties and philosophies are positive and all right-leaning parties and philosophies are negative. Whoever constructed the program could have reversed it without skewing the results. They probably subconsciously made it this way, with their own political leanings governing their actions...quite natural actually....but still biased.
ReplyDeleteThe Vote Compass questions are completely flawed. If you don't agree with the Conservative Party views, you have to reply negatively to every single question. Absolutely the worst-designed questionnaire I have ever seen. Oh, and it put me first to into the NDP camp, after recalibration into the Bloc although I was against giving more power to Quebec. ??? I will vote Liberal by the way. Forget about bias, the Compass is simply badly designed.
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