I recently blogged about research that does not support the conventional wisdom that individuals get more conservative as they age. What kind of research design would help us determine, with a high degree of certainty, whether individuals do, in fact, become more conservative (politically) as they age? The best would be a panel study, which interviews the same individuals over time. Ideally, it would be great if we had data on an individual’s political ideology at various stages of her lifetime.
What about comparing young people today to old people today? That, unfortunately, is not ideal since we would have to know the average political ideology of today’s elderly against their young selves. Nonetheless, I found it interesting to compare my political ideology–using the political compass test–to an individual who is a generation older than am I.
What were the results? Well, first here’s an informative chart produced by Political Compass.org.
Which one of these political leaders is the closes to you in political ideology? For me, it is the Dalai Lama. Here is my personal political ideology:
Here is the political ideology of somebody who is one generation older than I am.
Clouds, Clocks, and Sitting at Tables 
You’re not alone! Though, if you want to become the political leader of a country, you better start heading (from a politically ideological standpoint) in a north-easterly direction! 😉
8 deep to the left, about 6 squares towards libertarian.
Looks like I’m a big hippy.