How to Identify Your Political Bias Effectively

Are you a Faith and Flag Conservative? Progressive Left? Or somewhere in between?

Determining your political bias involves a combination of 

self-reflection, using structured assessment tools, and being critically aware of your information sources. 

1. Structured Self-Assessment Tools

Quizzes and surveys designed by research organizations and political scientists can help quantify your views on various social, economic, and foreign policy issues, and map them onto a political spectrum. 

• Political Typology Quizzes: The Pew Research Center offers a quiz that categorizes your beliefs into specific groups based on nationally representative surveys.
• The Political Compass: This survey places your views on a two-dimensional chart, with an economic scale (left/right) and a social scale (authoritarian/libertarian).
• 8 Values Political Quiz: This tool rates your leanings on four axes: Economic, Diplomatic, State, and Society, providing a detailed breakdown.
• Implicit Association Tests (IAT): Offered by Harvard, the IAT can help reveal unconscious biases or automatic associations you might have regarding different social and political groups, which can influence your conscious beliefs.
• General Voter Quizzes: Websites like Britain’s Choice and Vote Compass offer quizzes tailored to specific elections and demographics, comparing your views to those of political parties or “tribes” in your country. 

2. Critical Self-Reflection

Beyond quizzes, genuine self-reflection is key. Consider the following:

• Your Core Values: Identify the fundamental principles that drive your decisions (e.g., individual freedom, equality, order, tradition).
• Views on Specific Issues: Reflect on your stances on a range of issues, such as taxation, healthcare, immigration, environmental regulations, and social welfare programs. Your positions across different topics may not always align perfectly with one single ideology.
• The “Why”: Understand the reasoning behind your views. Are they based on personal experience, family upbringing, education, or deep-seated psychological traits (e.g., openness to experience, threat perception)? 

3. Analyzing Your Information Diet

The media you consume significantly shapes and often reinforces your existing biases (confirmation bias). 

• Diversify Your Sources: Actively seek out news and opinions from sources across the political spectrum.
• Use Media Bias Tools: Websites like AllSides, Media Bias/Fact Check, and Ad Fontes Media provide ratings for news sources, allowing you to compare how different outlets cover the same story and identify potential leanings in language or framing.
• Recognize Confirmation Bias: Be aware of the tendency to favor information that confirms your pre-existing beliefs and to dismiss evidence that challenges them. 

By combining these methods, you can gain a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of your own political leanings and biases.

My best fit

Establishment Liberals

… along with 13% of the public

Roughly half of Establishment Liberals describe their political views as liberal. They hold liberal positions on nearly all issues and support an expanded role for government and a larger social safety net. They also hold liberal attitudes on issues of racial and ethnic equality. Establishment Liberals are more likely than any other group to say that compromise is how things get done in politics. About half say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the country today, and an overwhelming majority say they approve of the job Joe Biden is doing as president.

Progressive Activists

13% of the population

‘It’s not really a meritocracy we live in. The people who have privilege to begin with are far more likely to end up in their dream career.’
Sally, 29, South East England

Progressive Activists are highly-educated, urban, and more likely than any other group to be in work. They think globally and are motivated to fight inequality and injustice. Their sense of personal identity is connected to their strong political and social beliefs. They are often supporters of Labour, the Greens and, in Scotland, the SNP. They like to take part in debates and have their voice heard. They are far more active in posting about politics on social media than any other group, and are big consumers of news from many sources, with The Guardian newspaper a big favourite.

Top priorities: Climate change, the economy, inequality

Compared to other groups:

More likely to say they are ‘extremely worried’ about climate change than any other group (72 per cent v 34 per cent average)

Much more pessimistic about the direction the country is heading in, with only 2 per cent saying it is going in the right direction (v 29 per cent average)

Strongly believe that the system is rigged to serve the rich and influential (95 per cent v 67 per cent average)

Very engaged with the news, with 83 per cent reporting use of social media in the past day, 54 per cent reading a newspaper online or in print, and 17 per cent reading a blog – in all cases more than any other segment

Much more active on social media, with 55 per cent posting political content on social media – more than four times as much as any other segment

Least confident that once we are through the worst of the Covid-19 crisis, we will address the problems in society (68 per cent v 46 per cent average). 

More likely to think that the people they agree with politically need to stick to their beliefs and fight (35 per cent v 22 per cent average)

Least proud of being British of any segment (22 per cent v 59 per cent  average) and most likely to say their national identity is not important to them (55 per cent v 24 per cent average)

Strongly believe that white people have advantages over ethnic minorities (93 per cent v 60 per cent average)

Strongly believe that immigration has had a positive impact on the UK (85 per cent v 43 per cent average)