Libertarian Writer Charles Murray Develops Quiz to Determine if You Live in a Bubble

Over the past several news cycles - while Mitt Romney fails to entertain us as well as  Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, and James Eagan Holmes' unfunny parody of Carrot Top haunts all of our television and laptop screens, I have longed for something else to talk about. I normally enjoy the Olympics, but I'm disgusted with all the Twitter blowback from them and not especially interested in the preliminary rounds of Pool B: Azerbaijan v. Uruguay in Women's Field Hockey.

I've been trolling my regular newsfeeds for something...anything else!

Ah! Here we go! A QUIZ...perfect.

A couple of things first. Because I am always the one who cautions PolicyMic about polls, surveys, and quizzes; please remember our results as we report them here from this one, are not a scientific sampling. Those of us who decide to take it make up what is called a "self-selected" sample. We are also a biased sample: biased heavily toward the younger, educated and computer-literate, obviously (with some older outliers, like me).

The assumptions behind the methodology are drawn from mainstream sociology: your basic attitudes and values, your political leanings, etc. are all learned behaviors, and have been influenced by what's called your "primary group" (i.e. where and with whom you grew up).

The quiz was developed by Charles Murray, a libertarian author, who works with one of my least favorite organizations in the world, The American Enterprise Institute. Never let it be said that I am not even handed in my examples and sources. The entire project is reported on by Paul Salmon for PBS Newshour.

Before I leave you with the link to the quiz; here is my suggestion. Take the survey and report back with your scores. Be honest with yourself and read the supporting material when the survey explains about the score and the ranges for interpretation. Then, if you choose, please share your information with the rest of us.

I scored 38. This is toward the top of the range of group 3: 2nd or 3rd generation, upper-middle-class with middle class or upper middle class parents - who has made a concerted effort to get out. I gather this indicates a relatively thick bubble that I constantly fight to break through and to overcome.

So, without further ado: Do You Live In a Bubble? A Quiz.