No Right or Wrong Answers

Fans of the World's Smallest Political Quiz might be amused by/interested in taking the Ethics Position Questionnaire.

Alerted to its existence by a recent article in the New Scientist about the scientific investigation of morality, the Ethics Position Questionnaire purports to measure two dimensions of moral thought: relativism and idealism. (Unfortunately there is no easy to use online self scoring version of the test that I could find, but here's a link to a version with three step instructions and a score card.)

According to the test, I score low for relativism and idealism which makes me an "exceptionist." Exceptionists retain moral rules to guide judgements, but remain open to exceptions to these rules. The test scores three other types of moral reasoning. Absolutists (low relativism/high idealism) assume that the best outcomes can always be achieved by following universal moral rules. Subjectivists (high relativism/low idealism) base their judgements on personal values rather than universal moral rules. And finally, situationists (high relativism/high idealism) who reject moral rules and advocate individual analysis of each situation.