# 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:** 2
**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, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/21 "2021-06-03T15:31:23Z")
> [@naita](#): > > 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. Yeah, they wanted all the answers to go the same ‘direction’ so they could simply add positive and negative difference scores. Which as we already discussed isn’t a good way to do it. > [@naita](#): > > 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? Good question. On another page it says this: > To learn how well Americans understand each other, we partnered with global research firm YouGov to survey 2,100 Americans. On issues including climate change, patriotism, sexual assault, police conduct and more, we asked Americans what they themselves believed and what they estimated people on the other side believed. We were then able to calculate the difference between the predictions and reality. I’d guess they are also collecting data from the quiz since it asks for demographic information, but don’t know what they are using it for. Quiz taking people on the internet aren’t going to be a representative sample. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/22 "2021-06-03T15:44:26Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > I’d guess they are also collecting data from the quiz since it asks for demographic information, but don’t know what they are using it for. Except that nowhere in the quiz does it ask what the respondent him/herself thinks. (It’s like Family Feud, where you’re trying to match the most popular answers, not give what you personally think are the best answers.) ETA: I guess that’s only true for those of us who answered as Independent. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/23 "2021-06-03T15:48:45Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > It seems to me that the methodology of allowing mistakes in both directions to “cancel out” is deeply flawed I wondered about that, too. My “Democrat Perception Gap” was +4% and my “Republican Perception Gap” was –5%. If I average the **absolute values** of my gaps, I get 14% Democrat and 7.7% Republican. FWIW, my biggest “miss” was underestimating the % of Democrats who think America should be a socialist country, by 23%. ---
**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, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/24 "2021-06-03T17:53:53Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Try taking it as an independent. You don’t have to answer the questions, just guess how other people answered. Except if they’re screwing up that badly from the start, I doubt any of the results they’re getting are worth anything; so I wouldn’t find out anything useful by taking it. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/25 "2021-06-03T17:59:16Z")
I took it yesterday and I don’t understand the results. I got 4% off from Republicans. > [@Oredigger77](#): > > I got 8% off on my view of democrats and 5% off on my view of republicans. > [@Gyrate](#): > > I was 10% Democrat, 28% Republican, mostly because I scored pretty much every question lower than the actual number. I only got a perception gap with Republicans. I guess that because I took it as a Democrat rather than an independent. > [@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. I was asked if I agreed or disagreed with a series of questions. They were so absolutist, I took the moderate view, which, I think, made it appear to the survey that I mostly disagreed with Democrats but I don’t really understand how they presented the results, so I’m not sure. > [@Gyrate](#): > > Nailed the Donald Trump one, though. I got this one completely wrong. I assumed that even Republicans know he is a flawed person. Twice divorced, lies unrepentantly, cavorts with strippers, cheats on his taxes, makes promises he doesn’t keep, stiffs his business partners, promotes obvious idiocy like injecting your veins with bleach, picks on disabled people, throws his friends under the bus, etc. It’s hard to say that he’s not flawed. I thought Republicans accepted him despite his flaws because they thought he was less flawed than the alternatives or because despite these flaws, his other positives outweighed them. Nope. If the survey that was used as the foundation for this study is to be believe, Republicans either don’t see these characteristics as flaws or they are morons who don’t believe the truth about Trump. ---
**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, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/26 "2021-06-03T18:03:30Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > My “Democrat Perception Gap” was +4% and my “Republican Perception Gap” was –5%. > > If I average the **absolute values** of my gaps, I get 14% Democrat and 7.7% Republican. > > FWIW, my biggest “miss” was underestimating the % of Democrats who think America should be a socialist country, by 23%. I decided to try doing the same. My original scores were 1% Dem and -2% Rep. Averaging absolute values gives me 8% Dem and 6% Rep. My biggest miss was the same as yours, Democrats are 17% keener on socialism than I guessed. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/27 "2021-06-03T20:04:58Z")
I started to take it but the binary nature of the answers put me off. Are most police bad? Probably not, but I cannot answer a yes/no question of that sort. ---
**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, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/28 "2021-06-03T20:42:23Z")
I’m curious. If you select Republican when taking the test, do you find the questions aimed at them equally hard to answer? ---
**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 3, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/29 "2021-06-03T21:24:54Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > I got this one completely wrong. I assumed that even Republicans know he is a flawed person. That was my assumption, as well. Insert any name there and I would have answered “yes.” (Hell, even with “Jesus” there, I would answer yes. He got a bit pissed there at the temple and lost his temper.) It’s kind of a defining aspect of human nature. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/30 "2021-06-03T21:45:12Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > That was my assumption, as well. Insert any name there and I would have answered “yes.” (Hell, even with “Jesus” there, I would answer yes. He got a bit pissed there at the temple and lost his temper.) It’s kind of a defining aspect of human nature. Yeah, didn’t some influential person in right-wing politics say something along the lines of, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?” ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/31 "2021-06-03T22:25:52Z")
I answered the poll as a Democrat, and most of my answers weren’t wildly out of touch with the “Democratic mainstream”. A few of the percentages given for Democrats were a little unnerving–for example, about a quarter of Democrats _don’t_ think it’s important that “men are protected from false accusations pertaining to sexual assault”? It’s important that _everyone_ be protected from serious “false accusations” of all sorts—that’s a bedrock principle of a liberal society! The presumption of innocence! Innocent until proven guilty! (To be fair, I guess it’s a bunch of very simple-minded binary questions, which some people are inevitably going to answer “seriously but not literally”. But still…geeze, guys!) I sort of deliberately and knowingly posted high on the Republican answers–what the hell, the website says “More in Common” right up at the top, so I figured “Oh, _of course_ the research will show that most Republicans aren’t opposed to all immigration” and “_Of course_ the research will show that most Republicans know there’s still racism”, and sure enough, I was very close on those: +5% on the immigration question (that is, Republicans are actually more pro-immigration than my deliberately optimistic “80%” answer) and I was only -1% off on “_Of course_ Republicans know racism is still a thing”. On the other hand, I got some nasty shocks on “People are right to be concerned about how climate change might affect us”—less than 50% of Republicans believe that? Wow!—and “Donald Trump is a flawed person”—less than half of Republicans will agree with _that_ statement?!? What…the…_fuck_ Republicans—I mean, isn’t _everyone_ a flawed person? (Plus, you know, it’s _ **Donald Trump** _.) Again, probably some tribal “seriously-but-not-literally” virtue-signalling going on there, and if you sat down and talked with them, many of them might have answers that are more nuanced—but still, that’s pants-on-head batshit-crazy territory. I mean, Barack Obama is a flawed person. _I’m_ a flawed person. _My mom_ is a flawed person. All in all, the quiz actually made me think the gap is _ **wider** _ than I would have predicted going in. So, kind of a backfire from the “More in Common” people—more like “Less in Common”. These people are not to be trusted!!! ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/32 "2021-06-03T22:31:12Z")
Independent, 0% gap Democratic, 6% gap Republican. Interesting exercise, thanks, OP. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/33 "2021-06-03T22:34:20Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > I got this one completely wrong. I assumed that even Republicans know he is a flawed person. Twice divorced, lies unrepentantly, cavorts with strippers, cheats on his taxes, makes promises he doesn’t keep, stiffs his business partners, promotes obvious idiocy like injecting your veins with bleach, picks on disabled people, throws his friends under the bus, etc. Yeah that was the one I did the worst at -25%. I also thought that more Republicans would believe that sexism and climate change exist (-15%). On the other hand, I underestimated the proportion who want more government action to keep guns out of the hands of bad guys (+15%). Given that the vast majority of Republicans oppose additional gun control laws I’m not sure what they actually want to government to do. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/34 "2021-06-03T22:50:07Z")
I pretty much nailed that question. Gun owners overwhelmingly want the government to prosecute the existing laws. A good number of them even support universal background checks. What they strongly oppose are gun bans, like the assault weapons ban, or the gun confiscations they imagine. ---
**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, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/35 "2021-06-03T23:16:23Z")
You can retake the test as many times as you want as any party as you want to see how the poll changes itself. Which to me the poll changing itself and thus your results based on the party you choose seems stupid and suspicious. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/36 "2021-06-03T23:37:56Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > That was my assumption, as well. Insert any name there and I would have answered “yes.” (Hell, even with “Jesus” there, I would answer yes. He got a bit pissed there at the temple and lost his temper.) It’s kind of a defining aspect of human nature. That’s part of the problem with most of these political surveys. If you actually answer the questions literally, they stop actually measuring what they’re supposed to measure. ---
**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 3, 2021, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/37 "2021-06-03T23:42:09Z")
But even with the extreme literalism of, say, using Jesus as an example – regardless if you think him historical, literal, or allegorical – it’s hard for me to think of a way where “flawed” can be parsed in anything but a reasonably literal way. It’s not asking if you think he’s a mostly good person, or they would ask that. But asking if he’s flawed – to me – doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation, as that specific term was used, and not a “softer” one. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/38 "2021-06-03T23:46:28Z")
I think people are pretty good at inferring what the questions are trying to ask, and you end up getting this disjointed poll of some people who answer literally anyway and some people who interpret “is Trump a flawed person” as “is Trump a bad person”. ---
**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 3, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/39 "2021-06-03T23:48:33Z")
Then they should, if they want the answer to that question, ask that question. Those polled shouldn’t have to infer what the pollster had intended. I personally do not think that is a reasonable inference that a question asking if somebody is flawed is actually asking if somebody is, on the whole, good. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501/40 "2021-06-03T23:49:16Z")
I agree. I realize wording these questions is hard, but for some reason the political surveys ALWAYS ask the worst questions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perception-gap-quiz/943501.md?page=3)