Survey of Dictionary-based Isms

[Enkidu]

This is an interactive version of the Survey of Dictionary-based Isms (SDI-46)

The SDI is a measure of sociopolitical attitudes developed by Gerard Saucier. Its name references the fact that it was derived from searching the dictionary for words describing different philosophies (which often end in "ism", e.g. liberalism, hobbism), which were then reduced down to underlying factors with statistical analysis. The SDI-46 revision was published in 2013.

*http://personality-testing.info/tests/SDI-46/

Gerard Saucier of the University of Oregon has spent much of his career studying political and social attitudes. He has referred to his work as the study of "isms", a reference to the fact that most words used to label political philosophies end in -ism (e.g. conservatism, neoplatonism, feminism, pessimism). In 2000, Based on a statistical analysis of responses to a survey containing 334 -ism words he sampled from the dictionary he has proposed that there are four underlying dimensions of socio-political attitudes. He developed the SDI to measure them. The SDI has gone under several revisions since then and in 2006 a new dimension was added, bringing the number of traits measured to five. His most current version, the SDI-46, was published in 2013 and is used here.

From the abstract:
Factors identified in these studies are demonstrated to show interesting relations with political-party preference, subjective well-being, and change over time in the Big Five personality dimensions.

 

[Enkidu]

Example of the results:

 

[acd]

Trait Score Average

Tradition-oriented Religiousness
1.4
-
The alpha factor, described as "tradition-oriented religiousness", reflects adherence to traditional (religious) standards of morality and resistance to change in social structure.


Unmitigated Self-Interest
1.7
-
The beta factor, described as "unmitigated self-interest", reflects a competitive world view where the goal of a person is to do as best for themselves as possible and the groups that they belong to, with the expectation that this will come at the expense of someone else.


Communal Rationalism
4.3
-
The gamma factor, described as "communal rationalism", reflects a optimistic view of human nature and society. Individuals who score high in communal rationalism tend to believe that democracy works well.


Subjective Spirituality
2.9
-
The delta factor, described as "subjective spirituality", reflects spiritual beliefs outside of organized religion.


Egalitarianism
4.0
-
The epsilon factor, described as "egalitarianism", reflects a commitment to. Individuals who score high on this factor believe that inequality must be cause by some sort of oppression, while individuals low in egalitarianism tend to see inequality and inevitable and arising from natural factors.

 

[heiots]

Tradition-oriented Religiousness: 3.4
Unmitigated Self-Interest: 1.3
Communal Rationalism: 3.5
Subjective Spirituality: 3.9
Egalitarianism: 3.7

 

[Asa]

Tradition-oriented Religiousness: 1.1
-
Unmitigated Self-Interest: 1.6
-
Communal Rationalism: 3.1
-
Subjective Spirituality: 3.1
-
Egalitarianism: 4.3



Makes perfect sense considering my bazillion year spent in egalitarian-anarchist punk rock.
(If you've ever seen a Circle E next to the Circle A on punk records, clothes, etc, it means Egalitarianism: Relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.)

 

[Milktoast Bandit]

 

[Tin Man]

 

[Ginny]

Trait Score Average
Tradition-oriented Religiousness 1.5
Unmitigated Self-Interest 1.9
Communal Rationalism 3.8
Subjective Spirituality 3.3
Egalitarianism 3.0

 

[aeon]