Ask HN: Can we objectively measure conformism? If so, how? If not, why?

1 point

5 years ago

Last summer, I read an essay^1 by Paul Graham called "The Four Quadrants of Conformism". It argued that people's personalities can be categorised on two axes, how conventional- or independent-minded a person is and how passive or aggressive this nature is. The essay also argues that the sizes of these quadrants are unequal size with there being more conventional-minded people than independent-minded people and more people are passive than aggressive in this nature.

While the implications of this are quite interesting on their own, I'd like to know if this idea can be empirically tested. Would it be possible to design a system of measurement for these traits and where a person might fall on these axis? Can we make useful predictions about people's interactions based on where their positions on the axes? What would this measurement entail, would it be based on a questionnaire like other psychological studies or something else?

1. http://paulgraham.com/conformism.html

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