DNA Origins · 14 dilemmas · 4 minutesBeta
The instinct underneath your politics.
Fourteen dilemmas with no right answers. Each one forces two things you believe in to collide, and the pattern in what wins is your moral type. No policy, no talking points. Just you against yourself.
What this moral foundations test measures
DNA Origins is a free moral foundations test: fourteen everyday dilemmas, about four minutes, and a result that names which moral instinct wins in you when two of them collide. It scores seven moral foundations and matches the pattern to one of eight moral types. The result needs no account. The instrument is in beta.
The framework adapts Moral Foundations Theory, the research program of Jonathan Haidt, Jesse Graham and colleagues, which describes a small set of moral intuitions that people weigh differently. Origins scores seven of them rather than the original five: fairness is split into Equality and Proportionality, which pull in opposite political directions, and Liberty is scored as its own foundation, following the research on libertarian moral psychology (Iyer and colleagues, 2012).
- CareWho is suffering, and who is shielded.
- EqualityWhether everyone stands as an equal.
- LibertyFreedom from being made to live another’s way.
- ProportionalityEffort in, reward out: whether the ledger balances.
- LoyaltyKeeping faith with your own people.
- AuthorityLegitimate order, and the institutions that earn their keep.
- SanctityLines that should not be crossed for any price.
How the fourteen dilemmas work
The Moral Foundations Questionnaire asks you to rate each value on its own, which measures endorsement. Origins instead puts two good instincts in the same scene (a brother drinking himself to death who says to stay out of it; a prize you did most of the work for that a coworker wants to split evenly) and asks which one wins. You answer on a slider between the two, so every item records a relative priority under conflict rather than an endorsement.
The bank is built so no foundation gets a free ride: each of the seven competes in exactly four dilemmas, appears twice on each side of the slider, and the dilemmas come in a random order. There is no policy content in any item, so the test cannot read your politics by asking about your politics. The full walkthrough is on how DNA Origins works.
What your moral type tells you
You get a score for each of the seven foundations and one of eight moral types, named for the foundation you reach for first: the Protector (Care), the Leveler (Equality), the Free Agent (Liberty), the Fair-Reckoner (Proportionality), the Loyalist (Loyalty), the Steward (Authority), the Keeper (Sanctity), or the Pluralist, when no single foundation rules. The field guide to the eight moral types describes each one, where it tends to land politically, and what it misses.
If you have taken the DNA Scan, Origins also compares your moral profile with your archetype and says how closely the two fit, from a textbook match to a divergent one. The Scan says where you land; Origins is built to say why.
How it compares with the Moral Foundations Questionnaire
The MFQ (Graham, Nosek, Haidt and colleagues, 2011) is the research standard: thirty items in its long form, each rated on its own for relevance or agreement, scored into five foundations. Origins is shorter, forced-choice, scored into seven foundations, and written as dilemmas rather than statements, so it measures priorities under conflict instead of how strongly you endorse each value in isolation. The trade is deliberate: a forced-choice design cannot report absolute intensity, and Origins is not a validated substitute for the MFQ in research. It is built for self-knowledge, and for reading against the Scan.
What it can and cannot claim
Origins is in beta and its validation runs in the open, against paired completions with the Scan. In the first analysis wave (162 paired results) each foundation’s strongest correlation landed on the Scan axis theory predicts, and a later convergent test on 311 paired results confirmed all thirteen predicted directions, one of them weakly. Those are tendencies across many people, not certainties about one person. The scores are relative by construction, rest on self-report in the moment, and are not a clinical or diagnostic measure. The science page sets out the design and the numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Is the moral foundations test free?
Yes. All fourteen dilemmas, your seven foundation scores and your moral type are free and need no account. PoliticalDNA is a for-profit, independent project; the only paid products are optional Deep Readings written from your DNA Scan answers.
How long does it take?
About four minutes: fourteen dilemmas, one screen at a time, each answered on a slider. Your progress is kept in this browser, so you can leave and resume.
Do I need to take the DNA Scan first?
No. Origins stands on its own. With a Scan result in this browser or on your account, it adds a moral-route comparison between your instincts and your archetype, which is where the pairing earns its keep.
Why is it in beta?
Because the validation program is still running. Several items and the scoring were revised after the first analysis wave, and the cutoffs between moral types are due for recalibration as the paired sample grows. The chip comes off when the planned waves are done.
Does it tell me whether I am left or right?
No. It names the moral instinct that tends to win in you. Every moral type turns up across the political map; the Scan is the instrument for position.
The rest of the suite: the DNA Scan (where you land) · DNA Dynamics (how you hold it) · DNA Civics (what you know)