Re:Experimental design (Score 1)

Another way in which I think the study may be flawed is by asking people to self-define their position in the political spectrum -- a one-dimensional political spectrum. What guarantees do you have that participants really are "conservative" or "liberal" (whatever that means to you), and have actually thought about the political issues involved in each "choice" (as if there weren't many, many greys)?. A 2-dimensional political positioning would provide more insight. A short questionnaire where participants actually had to think, instead of "choosing their favorite color" would have been even better.

But the quoted excerpt from the article noted that this single-item measure accounted for a whopping
85% of the variance in Presidential voting intentions in surveys across three decades, and in this study
was correlatedstrongly with reported vote for Kerry or Bush. That strong evidence of the measure's
validity should outweigh an intuitive sense that the measure "may be flawed," no?