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Here's Where You Are

Your beliefs are more than a label.

A field guide to what you believe, what connects us, and the questions worth exploring.

A little room to reconsider.

Atlas is a place to sit with a belief before any label is attached.

8 questions about what matters come first. Policy follows. A closer topic on vaccine rules during COVID-19 comes last, and you can skip that topic.

You do not have to change your mind. There is room for a view you change, and room for a view you keep.

Color theme

Beliefs before labels

55 short questions. Values come first, in the opening 8. People on different sides often say they care about the same ones. Caring about a value is not the same as respecting the person who holds the other one. Then policy, some split into the goal and the method. Last, a closer look at one topic: vaccine rules during COVID-19. No party, movement, or thinker is named next to a question.

That’s on purpose. In a 2003 study, people judged a welfare policy more by which party they were told backed it than by what was in it.

So you see your own view first. The names come after, each with its source.

Your answers reveal a dynamic worth exploring.

Question order

How these questions are ordered.

  1. Values8 prompts
  2. Policy30 prompts
  3. Closer topic17 prompts

This is the order of the instrument, not a measure of what people believe.

Study 1, 2003

Mean support followed the party cue

Means collapse the generous and stringent welfare policies. The study selected 48 liberal and 31 conservative college students.

Mean support by the party cue participants were given. The same means are drawn as bars below each number.
What participants were toldMean support
Liberals told Democrats supported it5.46
Liberals told Democrats opposed it3.15
Conservatives told Republicans supported it5.49
Conservatives told Republicans opposed it2.69

Units: mean rating. 1 is extremely opposed and 7 is extremely in favor. The axis starts at 0. This is not a percentage of people.

Source: Geoffrey L. Cohen, Party Over Policy: The Dominating Impact of Group Influence on Political Beliefs, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (American Psychological Association), 2003. https://ed.stanford.edu/sites/ed/files/party_over_policy_0.pdf

Limitation: one experiment with college students selected as strong partisans, after seven were dropped, not a count of the public.

An illustration, not participant data.

Two constructed profiles agree on Healthcare, Immigration, and Speech, then choose different labels. The answers are made up. These are not Atlas users, and the labels are not parties.

  • Profile 1Label AAgrees on those three policies.
  • Profile 2Label BAgrees on those three policies.

Same answers, different labels. Nothing here was measured.

Dignity

What makes a decent person?

Most of us want to believe we are decent people. But intentions, convictions, and conduct do not always align.

Someone can defend an important freedom while dismissing another person’s dignity. Someone can speak kindly while supporting a coercive policy. Someone can hold a belief we strongly oppose and still treat others with honesty and care.

Atlas does not issue certificates of goodness. It asks how our principles hold up when they become difficult to practice.

Editorial noteFor this experience, decency means making a sustained effort to treat people with dignity, reason honestly, consider consequences, respect others’ agency, and take responsibility when we cause harm.

This is an explicit editorial starting point, not a universal verdict. You can examine it, disagree with it, and suggest what it leaves out.

Seven checks.

The seven dimensions in this chapter

  • DignityCan I criticize without dehumanizing?
  • HonestyDo I distinguish evidence from suspicion?
  • ReciprocityWould I accept this rule if applied to me?
  • HumilityWhat could change my mind?
  • ResponsibilityCan I acknowledge harm and make repairs?
  • BoundariesCan I protect myself without denying others’ humanity?
  • ProportionalityIs my response appropriate to the actual threat?

A framework for this chapter. Not a score and not a poll.

Separate questions

These questions stay off the scores and off the map. You can leave any of them.

  • Dignity: Can I criticize without dehumanizing?
  • Honesty: Do I distinguish evidence from suspicion?
  • Reciprocity: Would I accept this rule if applied to me?
  • Humility: What could change my mind?
  • Responsibility: Can I acknowledge harm and make repairs?
  • Boundaries: Can I protect myself without denying others’ humanity?
  • Proportionality: Is my response appropriate to the actual threat?

Not interchangeable

  1. Respect for a person’s dignity.
  2. Understanding their reasoning.
  3. Agreement with their beliefs.
  4. Support for making those beliefs legally binding.

Civil disagreement can preserve the first two without requiring the last two.

Environment and climate

This section asks how you weigh environmental harm, cost, uncertainty, and who should decide. People disagree about the evidence and about the remedies.

You can skip any item.

Empathy with boundaries

Compassion does not require abandoning judgment. Security does not remove the need for evidence and proportionality.

  • What legitimate need is the other person expressing?
  • What accommodation is possible?
  • What boundary protects safety, agency, or essential resources?
  • What evidence supports the claimed threat?
  • Is a less restrictive response available?
  • Who reviews the decision, and can it be challenged?

A shared garden

Imagine maintaining a community garden with people whose politics, religion, and upbringing differ from yours. You still need agreements about water, tools, access, harvests, and resolving disputes.

These choices stay in this tab, outside the scores.

One principle you will not abandon
One preference you can compromise on
One responsibility you owe everyone
One fair process for resolving disagreement

What you will not abandon, what you can compromise on, what you owe everyone, and what process you will accept are the same kinds of choices in larger political questions.

The analogy has limits: a community garden is not a state.

Sorting

Four ways to place a disagreement

  • A principle
  • A compromise
  • A responsibility
  • A process

A way to sort a disagreement. Not a count of what people chose.

Layers of evidence

Media and self-reflection

  • Am I reacting to a representative position or a provocative clip?
  • What relevant context might be missing?
  • Would I judge these words differently from someone on my side?
  • What claim can I verify independently?
  • Am I applying the same skepticism to Atlas itself?

This experience has a perspective. You can inspect it in the sources linked beside a claim, in the editorial notes on the tradition cards, and in How this works, where the scoring is written out.

  • Your answers stay in this tab. Nothing is saved or sent unless you choose to add your scores to the community map.
  • You can mark up to three principles you won’t trade away. A conflict with one of those always shows first, no matter how much else lines up.
  • Every fact links to its source, tagged primary, data, news, analysis, or commentary. If there’s no source yet, you’ll see “Needs source” instead of the claim.
About 11 minutes. Skip anything.
Question index, 55 questions

There is no answer key. These are the questions you answer about yourself. Results are sentences about those answers, not a score.

Values

Each question asks which statement matters more. The scale runs from "Strongly the first" to "Strongly the second".

  1. Liberty and securityWhich matters more to you?People should be as free as possible to run their own lives, even when they make risky choices.Communities should set firm rules that keep people safe, even when that limits some choices.
  2. EqualityWhich matters more to you?People should keep what they earn, even if that means large gaps between rich and poor.Society should narrow the gap between rich and poor, even if that means higher taxes on success.
  3. Tradition and autonomyWhich matters more to you?Customs, families, and institutions handed down over generations deserve our loyalty, even when imperfect.Each person should be free to define their own way of life, even when that breaks with tradition.
  4. SolidarityWhich matters more to you?People do best when they take responsibility for themselves and their families first.We owe each other support through shared public institutions, even to strangers.
  5. Religious freedomWhich matters more to you?People of faith should be free to live by their beliefs at work and in public life, even if that means exemptions from some laws.The same laws should apply to everyone equally, religious or not, even when that burdens someone’s faith.
  6. Democratic accountabilityWhich matters more to you?Leaders who win elections should be able to act quickly, without being slowed down by courts and procedures.Even elected leaders must answer to courts, a free press, and fair procedures, even if that slows them down.
  7. Security and opennessWhich matters more to you?Our country is stronger when it is open to people, trade, and ideas from abroad.Our country is stronger when it controls its borders and puts its own citizens first.
  8. Democratic accountabilityWhich matters more to you?When a cause is just and urgent, peacefully breaking unjust laws, as in civil disobedience, can be right.Change should come only through elections, courts, and lawful persuasion, even when that is slow.

Policy

Each statement is answered from "Strongly disagree" to "Strongly agree".

  1. HealthcareEveryone living in the country should be guaranteed health coverage.
  2. HealthcareThe best way to cover everyone is one public plan that replaces private insurance.
  3. HealthcareMore competition and clear prices among private insurers and doctors would lower costs more than a government plan.
  4. TaxationThe richest people should pay a larger share of their income in taxes than they do now.
  5. TaxationLowering taxes overall helps working families more than new government programs do.
  6. Economic ownershipThe largest companies and key industries should be owned by the public rather than private shareholders.
  7. Economic ownershipPrivate businesses competing under fair rules are the best way to produce most goods and services.
  8. Economic ownershipGovernment rules on business usually do more harm than good.
  9. ImmigrationStopping illegal border crossings should be a top national priority.
  10. ImmigrationPeople who have lived here without legal status for many years and obeyed the law should be offered a path to citizenship.
  11. AbortionAbortion should be legal, as a decision for a woman and her doctor.
  12. AbortionAn unborn child has a right to life that the law should protect.
  13. AbortionAbortion law should be decided state by state rather than nationally.
  14. FirearmsLaw-abiding adults have a basic right to own guns for self-defense.
  15. FirearmsUniversal background checks and a ban on assault weapons would make the country safer.
  16. SpeechPeople should be free to say things most others find offensive, without legal punishment.
  17. SpeechSocial media companies should remove false or hateful posts, even if some lawful speech gets caught up.
  18. SpeechSocial media feeds driven by algorithms are doing more harm than good to public life.
  19. Public healthIn a serious epidemic, protecting public health can justify limits on businesses and gatherings.
  20. Public healthVaccines should be a personal choice, not something employers or schools can require.
  21. EnvironmentCutting greenhouse gas emissions should be a top priority, even if energy costs rise for a while.
  22. EnvironmentGovernment should build and own new energy systems directly, rather than relying on private companies.
  23. PolicingPolice departments should get more funding and more officers.
  24. Equal treatmentSame-sex couples should have the same legal marriage rights as anyone else.
  25. InstitutionsMajor news outlets and public institutions mostly deserve the public’s trust.
  26. InstitutionsThe U.S. Senate and Electoral College should be replaced with institutions that follow the national popular vote.
  27. Democratic processUsing violence or threats against political opponents is never acceptable.
  28. Democratic processEvery citizen should have the same legal rights, regardless of religion, race, sex, or political views.
  29. Democratic processLaws should come from religious law rather than be decided by voters and legislatures.

Public health rules

Questions about how much you value something use a scale from "Not much" to "Above almost anything". The others, unless they list choices, are answered from "Strongly disagree" to "Strongly agree". These answers don't move the map.

  1. Public health rulesHow much do you value bodily autonomy: the right to decide what goes into your own body?
  2. Public health rulesHow much do you value protecting other people from an illness you could pass on?
  3. Public health rulesDuring COVID-19, I supported government vaccine mandates.
  4. Public health rulesDuring COVID-19, I supported employers requiring vaccination.
  5. Public health rulesDuring COVID-19, I supported letting people test regularly instead of getting vaccinated.
  6. Public health rulesDuring COVID-19, I supported firing people who refused a required vaccine.
  7. Public health rulesFor staff who work directly with very vulnerable patients, a vaccine requirement is fair if testing or reassignment is also offered.
  8. Public health rulesBefore backing a requirement, I would want public evidence that it reduces spread to others, not only that it protects the person who gets it.
  9. Public health rulesReligious exemptions should be offered.
  10. Public health rulesMedical exemptions should be offered.
  11. Public health rulesAny requirement should end on a set date unless it is renewed after a public review of the evidence.
  12. Public health rulesRefusing should not cost someone their job until reasonable accommodation has been tried.
  13. Public health rulesBack in 2021, vaccine requirements seemed right to me.
  14. Public health rulesLooking back now, vaccine requirements seem right to me.
  15. Public health rulesIf your view changed, what moved it most?New evidence · What happened to people I know · How the rules were enforced · Who was making the rules · My view didn’t change · Mixed, or it depends
  16. Public health rulesI would give the same authority to a government I strongly oppose.