How the MPTI Political Ideology Test Works

MPTI looks at political orientation along four distinct axes.

• Economy · how should wealth be shared — Equality vs. Market
• Diplomacy · how should we relate to the rest of the world — World vs. Nation
• Civil · individual or state, which comes first — Liberty vs. Authority
• Society · where should society be headed — Progress vs. Tradition

This four-axis framing follows the standard structure used across established political tests and political-science research; what sets MPTI apart is not the axes themselves but its typology and a design that keeps no individual response records.

The two poles of each axis are different values, not better or worse ones; your four-letter type code shows which way you lean on each axis.

The four MPTI axes are not invented dimensions; they follow dimensional structures established in political science and political psychology.

Economy (Equality–Market) is the classic left–right criterion (Bobbio, Left and Right, 1996; Downs's spatial model, 1957). The other three axes refine what research often bundles into a single 'cultural cleavage' (GAL–TAN: Hooghe, Marks & Wilson, 2002; the libertarian–authoritarian dimension: Kitschelt, 1994).

The three cultural axes draw on these research traditions:

• Civil (Liberty–Authority) · libertarian–authoritarian value scales (Evans, Heath & Lalljee, 1996) and the psychology of authoritarianism (Altemeyer, 1981; Feldman, 2003)
• Society (Progress–Tradition) · traditional–secular and openness–conservation value research (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005; Schwartz, 1992)
• Diplomacy (World–Nation) · research into the cosmopolitan–national cleavage (Norris & Inglehart, 2019; Kriesi et al., 2008)

This lineage provides theoretical and content-level grounding only — the specific MPTI item set has not been empirically validated with factor analysis or reliability studies, and the 'not an academically validated instrument' disclosure (section 7 below) stands.

You answer 40 statements on a five-point scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree). For each axis, your 10 answers combine into a position score between 0 and 100.

About half of the statements take one pole's side and half take the other's; we average each direction separately and then combine them — so a habit of agreeing with everything (acquiescence bias) can't push your score to one side.

Statements are also weighted by kind.

• Weight 1.5 · statements about an axis's core value
• Weight 1.0 · general statements
• Weight 0.75 · concrete policy examples

Each axis always resolves to the closer of its two poles — above 50 means the first letter, below 50 the second — so your four letters are always one of the 16 types.

Even when your score sits close to the middle, MPTI still gives you a conclusion about which way you lean, while the per-axis percentage on the result page shows how strong that lean is (the closer to 50%, the more moderate).

In the very rare case of an exact 50–50 tie, the poles are assigned alternately by axis order, so an all-tied answer sheet never lands on a code that reads as one political camp across the board.

• Statements never mention parties, politicians, or current controversies — only universal value propositions.
• Statements and type descriptions are reviewed so that neither pole reads as superior: both poles are described the same way — what each values and the society it hopes for — and every type sets out, with equal weight, what its stance stands for and what it can overlook.
• Across all 14 languages we serve, an automated check continuously blocks real party and politician names and poll-style metric wording.

The figure cards on result pages are a playful exercise in mapping real people's public records onto the four axes — not an academic classification.

Figures are selected by these principles:

• Global recognition
• Deceased — as a rule, for at least 30 years, with rare exceptions for broadly uncontroversial global figures (currently Mandela and Lee Kuan Yew)
• No one remembered for tyranny, massacre, or war crimes
• No contemporary politicians
• Every type equally respected in the lineup

MPTI is a short self-report test. Your result is a snapshot of how you think at the moment you answer; it can change as time passes or your concerns shift.

It is not an academically validated instrument and does not substitute for your own political judgment. Many contexts — region, generation, specific policy conditions — are beyond what 40 statements can capture. Please treat your result as a starting point for conversation.

Your answers and scoring happen inside your browser.

When you finish, your result type and each answer (1–⁠5) are sent once to the server only to increment anonymous aggregate counters — just the totals grow (how many times each type came up, how many times each answer value was chosen on each question, and how many times the test was completed in each language).

The optional 'did this match you' feedback on the result page works the same way, incrementing only per-type, per-answer counters.

No individual answer record, identifying information (name, email, IP), or axis scores (?s=) are stored, so responses cannot be traced to a person. Of these aggregate counts, only the type distribution (what share of all completed results each of the 16 types accounts for) is shown on the result page — refreshed regularly and always labeled with the date it was taken. The rest (per-question answers, match feedback) are for internal service improvement and question-quality checks only, and are never published.

MPTI is not an election opinion poll in any jurisdiction. See the Privacy Policy for details.