How It Works

Most political tests put you somewhere on a line from "left" to "right." But that single dimension can't capture someone who's fiscally conservative but socially liberal, or who supports free markets but opposes globalization.

Political science research consistently shows that at least two dimensions—often called economic and social—are needed to describe political beliefs accurately. Our assessment uses four dimensions to capture the full picture of modern political identity, then matches you to one of 32 distinct political strains.

Each dimension represents a spectrum where most people fall somewhere in the middle, with fewer at the extremes. Your position on all four dimensions together creates your unique political profile.

The Political DNA Scan asks 32 carefully designed questions. Each question presents a political statement, and you respond on a 5-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.

Here's what happens when you take the assessment:

Your responses match you to one of 32 distinct political strains, organized into 8 "haplotypes"—clusters of related strains that share core characteristics. Think of haplotypes as branches on the political family tree.

Here are a few example strains:

The full set of 32 strains captures combinations you won't find in typical "left vs. right" frameworks—like market-loving progressives, liberty-focused traditionalists, or socialist nationalists.

We're upfront about limitations:

• It's a snapshot, not a biography. 32 questions can't capture everything about your politics. It's a starting point for self-reflection, not the final word.
• Cultural context matters. The assessment is designed for English-speaking democracies (primarily US, UK, Australia, Canada). Some questions may resonate differently elsewhere.
• Politics changes. Our strains reflect current political coalitions. As issues shift, some strains may become more or less common.
• Self-reporting has limits. You might answer aspirationally rather than reflecting actual behavior. That's human nature.
• We don't predict your vote. Knowing your strain doesn't mean we know which candidate you'll support—many factors beyond ideology influence voting.
• Despite the name, it's not genetic. "Political DNA" is a metaphor. We're mapping your stated beliefs, not your biology.

We believe anonymity leads to honest answers. Here's our approach:

• No account required. Take the full assessment without providing any personal information.
• Anonymous analytics only. We track aggregate patterns (like "15% of users get this strain") but not individual people.
• Share codes are anonymous. They encode your scores but contain no identifying information.
• No data selling. We never sell or share personally-identifying response data.

Our framework synthesizes established political science research on belief structure and political dimensions:

• Multidimensional ideology: Research consistently shows that economic and social attitudes are distinct dimensions that don't necessarily correlate (Feldman & Johnston, 2014; Converse, 1964).
• Globalization cleavages: The divide between "winners" and "losers" of globalization has created new political coalitions that crosscut traditional left-right divisions (Kriesi et al., 2006, 2008).
• GAL-TAN framework: European politics research identifies a Green/Alternative/Libertarian vs. Traditional/Authoritarian/Nationalist dimension alongside economic left-right (Hooghe et al., 2002).
• Value foundations: Core values like liberty, equality, and security form the psychological basis for political attitudes (Schwartz et al., 2010; Feldman, 2003).