The 4 Orbs Political Test: What It Is, What the Orbs Mean, and What to Take Next

What 4Orbs actually is

4Orbs is a display, and the political instrument underneath is older. Its own page calls it "a proof of concept of a new way to display the scores from 8values-style quizzes." When you open it you are offered "a choice of 2 different tests," and the questions come from two existing open-source question sets, 8values and NewValues. What 4Orbs adds is the drawing: instead of the percentage bars 8values gives you, your scores become four orbs.

That matters for one practical reason. If you want the canonical version of the test you took, with the full scoring and the ideology labels, that is 8values itself. 4Orbs points questions about the questions back to those original authors, and so do we.

It also explains why the test spread the way it did. Four orbs are a better screenshot than eight bars. The result reads at a glance, it fits a phone screen, and it invites the reply "what did you get?" That is the whole engine behind its popularity, and it is a good one.

What the four orbs measure

Because 4Orbs displays 8values-style scores, the four orbs correspond to the four axes 8values measures. Each axis runs between two poles, and your position on it is what the orb shows.

Those four questions are not unique to 8values. Many multi-axis political tests since the Political Compass have converged on some version of them, because they are the four places where people who agree on one thing routinely disagree on the others. A person can be firmly for markets and firmly for open borders, or firmly for tradition and firmly for civil liberty. A single left-right line cannot hold those combinations. Four axes can.

How to read your result

Read each orb on its own first. The interesting part of a four-axis result is the tension, more than the average: the orb that points the opposite way from the other three is the one that says something about you. Most people have one.

Then be careful with the labels. 4Orbs names each orb with a word for where you sit on that axis, and 8values goes further, matching your four numbers to a named ideology. That match is only as good as the list of ideologies it is choosing from and the distance formula it uses. Two people with nearly identical scores can get different names if they sit near a boundary. Treat the name as a suggestion and the four positions as the result.

And remember what a screenshot cannot show: how you compare with other people. Four orbs tell you where you lean. They do not tell you whether that lean is common or rare, which is the question most people actually want answered.

4Orbs, 8values and PoliticalDNA, side by side

PoliticalDNA measures the same four dimensions under different names: liberty versus authority, state versus market, national versus global, and traditional versus progressive. Where it differs is what it does with the four numbers.

PoliticalDNA is our own test, so weigh this table accordingly. The method, the validation evidence, and the things it does not do well are written up on the science page, including the results of running it against 31 AI models.

In short: 4Orbs is the best way to share an 8values result, 8values is the best way to see your raw scores in detail, and PoliticalDNA is the fastest way to turn the same four dimensions into a named type you can read about, compare, and place among other people.

What to take next

If you already have your orbs, the useful next step is a second reading of the same four dimensions by a different instrument. Agreement between two tests means the result is probably you. Disagreement tells you which axis is sensitive to how the questions are worded, which is worth knowing before you put a label in a bio.

Prefer a wider field? Our ranking of the best political quizzes covers seven, and the guide to Political Compass alternatives explains why two axes are not enough.

Frequently asked questions