# Perception gap quiz **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2021, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501 "2021-06-02T21:32:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/1 "2021-06-02T21:32:31Z")
How typical are you compared to your ‘side’ and how well do you understand the other? Take the quiz and post your results: > **[The Perception Gap Quiz](https://perceptiongap.us/the-perception-gap-quiz/)** > > Do you have a yawning Perception Gap, or are you in sync with the American public? Whether you’re Republican, Democrat or Independent, our quiz will tell you how your beliefs compare to your side and how well you understand your opponents ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/2 "2021-06-02T22:04:13Z")
I got -30% (Democrat), but I’m unsure of how to interpret this number. This is a rather short quiz with binary answers in the first round of questions that leave much to be desired, but I suspect it’s made that way purposefully. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/3 "2021-06-02T22:13:50Z")
I got 8% off on my view of democrats and 5% off on my view of republicans. My biggest errors were I was 46% low on the number of dems that think men should be protected from false sexual assault allegations and I was 47% low on the number of republicans that think racism is a problem. I pretty much nailed the rest though. I took the test as an independent. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/4 "2021-06-02T22:13:58Z")
Oh, wait, I totally did this wrong. I answered the second section as myself. OK, I got -8% on my view of Republicans, I guess. So I guess that means I find them a little more Democratic than they actually are? Looks like the section where I express the most gap is that I way underestimate what percentage of Republicans think racism exists in America (I went with a non-committal 50%; actual answer 29%) and “Donald Trump is a flawed person” (which I guessed at 80%, thinking most Republicans would say “yeah he’s flawed, but …”; instead just under 50% agreed with that) and the climate change question, where I overestimated their response by 23%. (I thought somewhere around 70% would agree that people have a right to be concerned, but the answer fell closer to 45%). ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/5 "2021-06-02T22:34:19Z")
I was furthest off on those last two questions too, though I didn’t estimate as high as you. But I underestimated how many approved of immigration, so it kind of cancelled out. For the Democrats I was most off on how many think America should be a socialist country - I’m really surprised it’s so high. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/6 "2021-06-02T23:11:32Z")
It seems to me that the methodology of allowing mistakes in both directions to “cancel out” is deeply flawed - if you think Republicans are way more like you on X than they really are and way less like you on Y, then you do in fact have an inaccurate perception, even if it’s one that would lead to the same amount of approval as an accurate one ---
**Author:** ![Smudge777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@Smudge777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smudge777)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/7 "2021-06-02T23:55:51Z")
I’m an Australian who put myself as ‘independent’ because I think I would fall very much as a centrist in American politics. I got a perception gap of 2% for Democrats and 1% for Republicans. I feel strange for having any pride in my results. ---
**Author:** ![Enjoy\_Slurm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enjoy_slurm/32/3937_2.png) [@Enjoy\_Slurm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enjoy_Slurm)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/8 "2021-06-03T00:20:51Z")
I took the test 15 times just to see if I was understanding their claim of Democrats view on what percent of Democrats think “Most police are bad people.” I did it several times as a Republican, Democrat and Independent. I did each party as each gender and changed up the age and education. It seems to be saying that 85% of Democrats think “Most police are bad people.” Is it really that high? Do 85% of Democrats think most police are bad people? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/9 "2021-06-03T00:24:57Z")
I couldn’t agree or disagree with most of the questions. They were too broad. So, I didn’t even complete the test. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/10 "2021-06-03T08:57:56Z")
> [@Enjoy\_Slurm](#): > > It seems to be saying that 85% of Democrats think “Most police are bad people.” > > Is it really that high? Do 85% of Democrats think most police are bad people? Confusingly, the results for some of them show “% disagree”, including that one. Which is quite a terrible way to present the results because it effectively inverts the way the question was presented. So if I’m reading it correctly, 85% of Democrats **disagree** with the statement that most police are bad people. I was 10% Democrat, 28% Republican, mostly because I scored pretty much every question lower than the actual number. Nailed the Donald Trump one, though. > [@carrps](#): > > I couldn’t agree or disagree with most of the questions. They were too broad. So, I didn’t even complete the test. You’re not supposed to agree or disagree with them. You’re supposed to guess how many other people agree or disagree with them. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/11 "2021-06-03T09:25:01Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > It seems to me that the methodology of allowing mistakes in both directions to “cancel out” is deeply flawed - if you think Republicans are way more like you on X than they really are and way less like you on Y, then you do in fact have an inaccurate perception, even if it’s one that would lead to the same amount of approval as an accurate one Yeah, I was thinking that too. They are trying to highlight people who think the opposition are much more (or less) extreme than the reality, but big errors in both directions should also count as a perception gap. > [@Gyrate](#): > > You’re not supposed to agree or disagree with them. You’re supposed to guess how many other people agree or disagree with them. If you select that you are a Democrat or Republican at the beginning of the test, it asks you whether you agree or disagree in your own party’s section, instead of asking you to guess. Perhaps I should have told people to choose Independent in the OP since that is more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![CardboardBoxx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardboardboxx/32/7079_2.png) [@CardboardBoxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CardboardBoxx)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/12 "2021-06-03T09:27:28Z")
The quiz works on the same metrics as the joke about the mathematicians going hunting, If you miss 1 question my a large margin, and another by a large margin the other way it will give you a 0% discrepancy, although you’re way more out on your opinions than someone 3% out in the same direction on both questions. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/13 "2021-06-03T09:46:35Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > If you select that you are a Democrat or Republican at the beginning of the test, it asks you whether you agree or disagree in your own party’s section, instead of asking you to guess. Perhaps I should have told people to choose Independent in the OP since that is more interesting. Ah. I stand corrected (as an Independent). ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/14 "2021-06-03T12:36:38Z")
I chose Independent. I got a 2% perception gap for Democrat and 18% for Repub. In almost every Repub question I chose worse than the actual % the quiz claimed. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/15 "2021-06-03T14:35:51Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > I couldn’t agree or disagree with most of the questions. They were too broad. So, I didn’t even complete the test. This. I didn’t get past the first screen, which insisted I answer yes or no to a batch of questions that looked to me like they were taken out of a push poll, and wouldn’t let me continue if I skipped half of them. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/16 "2021-06-03T14:42:27Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I didn’t get past the first screen, which insisted I answer yes or no to a batch of questions that looked to me like they were taken out of a push poll, and wouldn’t let me continue if I skipped half of them. Try taking it as an independent. You don’t have to answer the questions, just guess how other people answered. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/17 "2021-06-03T15:16:06Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I didn’t get past the first screen, which insisted I answer yes or no to a batch of questions that looked to me like they were taken out of a push poll, and wouldn’t let me continue if I skipped half of them. Looked like a push poll to me, or a line from a sitcom: “What do you think I think about what you think about me?” ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/18 "2021-06-03T15:20:16Z")
Yes, even if I misunderstood what I was supposed to be doing, it doesn’t make sense. It’s like something you’d do in middle school. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/19 "2021-06-03T15:23:45Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Confusingly, the results for some of them show “% disagree”, including that one. Which is quite a terrible way to present the results because it effectively inverts the way the question was presented. > > So if I’m reading it correctly, 85% of Democrats **disagree** with the statement that most police are bad people. They’re doing that because what they consider “positive” is towards the right (Positive is “more like a Republican” on the Democrat plot and “more like a Democrat” on the Republican one). Which weirdly means that if you underestimate the similarities you get a positive deviation score, and if you overestimate you get a negative deviation. I think them choosing to use +/- and averaging is the true crime they are committing. If they skipped that and instead labeled each bar with something like “you underestimated how much Republican dislike immigration by 43%”, and “you overestimated how many Republicans agree Trump is flawed by 43%” instead of calling them 43% and -43% the graphs would be a good visualization of that. You could “turn” the original question around, but then you create a bias in one direction being “good” for all of them. Which I think is the reason, although it could just be random considering the silly choice of averaging. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/20 "2021-06-03T15:26:00Z")
I did it as an independent and didn’t realize they were also asking the questions. Are those answers what the “Democrats think” - “Republicans think” points are based on, or are those from polls with some real world value? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501.md?page=2)