Here are some answers, with accompanying images, to questions you may have about your survey report. Most questions are arranged in the order they appear on your report.
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What is my entry key and why should I remember it?
Your four- or five-digit entry key is an automatically generated random code you can use to retrieve your report at any time. Since your submitted data are fully anonymous, we cannot help you find your report if you lose this entry key!…write it down somewhere so you can remember it.
What does my polarity score mean?
Your polarity score is the average of the absolute value of your twelve slider responses (which vary on the six-point slider scale between 0.2 and 1.0). Higher scores indicate that you expressed strong opinions (i.e., tended to lean strongly toward the left or right statement). There is no good or bad polarity score, but you may wish to compare yours with others and discuss similarities/differences.
There may be all sorts of reasons why you might display high or low polarity relative to someone else, or yourself over time. You may find, for instance, that your polarity score increases over time as your environmental opinions settle; you may, conversely, find that your polarity score decreases over time as you appreciate the full range of opinion.
Why do axes have poles, and themes have attractors?
An important but sometimes confusing feature of EcoTypes is that axes have opposing poles, and themes have opposing attractors. This may sound like a bad binary way of approaching axes and themes! In fact, our intent is quite different: read the EcoTypes FAQ (“What is the theory underlying EcoTypes?”) or the FAQ below on complementarity to appreciate how binaries might lead to something far deeper.
Axis poles derive primarily from difference. Each axis represents a fundamental consideration in how we approach environmental issues, for which there are genuine differences of opinion; the poles quickly summarize these differences, and operationalize them for the survey.
Some people may support one or the other pole; others may position themselves somewhere in between, which you do on the survey by moving each slider. There is no right or wrong position relative to these axis poles, but they do encourage you to think hard about your own opinions—this is also why there is no middle position on the sliders.
Yet the twelve EcoTypes axes do not necessarily represent twelve separate differences in how we approach environmental issues. This is where the three EcoTypes themes, and their respective attractors, come in. These themes, Place, Knowledge, and Action, are statistically derived from axes using a technique called factor analysis. Factor analysis results in factors (themes) that group variables (axes) based on their greatest common differences, statistically known as variance.
Theme attractors are derived from their contributing axis poles; attractors thus represent our most fundamental differences. As with axes, some people may score near one or the other theme attractor, or somewhere in between. These theme poles are called attractors for theoretical reasons: see the EcoTypes FAQ “What is the theory underlying EcoTypes?” for more details. For now, you can think of each as an attractive, common, yet only partial solution to the complex question posed by each theme.
How did you come up with twelve axes and three themes?
There can be many potential EcoTypes axes; in past there have been as many as eighteen. The current twelve axes represent the top four related to each statistical theme, and offer a more manageable number of fundamental considerations, for instance in educational settings, while preserving the EcoTypes intent of broadening our scope of consideration. See the EcoTypes FAQ (“How does the EcoTypes approach compare with others?”) for further explanation.
As explained above, the three themes were derived statistically from factor analysis. There are several measures one may use in factor analysis to decide on the optimal number of underlying factors (themes); EcoTypes survey data have long suggested three themes, even when more than twelve axes were included.
What do my axis and theme scores mean?
The EcoTypes survey includes twelve sliders with contrasting statements for each axis, to allow for responses across the full range of potential difference. Your axis scores range from -1 to +1 (in equal increments including -0.6, -0.2, +0.2, and +0.6), depending on where you positioned the slider between the left and right poles. You will see the scores of axes associated with each theme underneath that theme, with a link to each axis for further clarification.
For Place and Action, your theme scores are the average for the four contributing axis scores, and thus also range from -1 to +1—the left to the right attractor. But for Knowledge, your scores are different; see below.
Though all four Knowledge axes are statistically associated with the Knowledge theme (factor), two pairs of axes are more strongly related to each other: Spirituality and Time, and Science and Technology. Analysis of survey responses sometimes suggests that all four axes come together into Old Knowledge or New Knowledge, but at other times responses favor Old Knowledge in the case of Spirituality and Time, and New Knowledge in the case of Science and Technology. We are calling this approach to Knowledge Integral (I), falling alongside Old (O) and New (N) Knowledge as one of three EcoTypes suffixes. The image at left is an example of Integral Knowledge. You do not, then, receive an overall Knowledge score; rather, you receive two scores and a Knowledge type in your EcoTypes report.
How do I know if my EcoType is a good fit for me?
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether you feel your EcoType is a good fit! Remember that it’s based on your responses to 12 axis sliders, and your derivative Place and Action scores and Knowledge type. (You can calculate your EcoType yourself if you wish, with this fillable PDF form.) Remember also that EcoTypes are based on some of the most important differences in how we approach environmental issues, so look at the other EcoTypes and you may find that they are not as good a fit.
For a more quantitative answer to this question in the context of your Place/Action EcoTypes phrase, look carefully at the image above (click to expand), in which two sample EcoTypes, Small Green Steps and Land Stewardship, are charted as you’ll see on your report. The location of each dot represents the percentile of that Place and Action score in its sector, relative to the over 3500 EcoTypes survey responses for 2023-24. These percentiles correspond to the grid on this chart: look at the Social Justice sector for details (0% is in the center of the chart). So, if your Place and Action percentiles are relatively high in your EcoTypes sector, this may mean that your EcoType is a better fit.
In the image above, the Small Green Steps EcoType has a Place score approaching the 100th percentile, and an Action score near the 60th percentile, whereas the Land Stewardship EcoType is in the 20th percentile for both Place and Action. This may mean that the Small Green Steps respondent feels that their EcoType is a better fit!…but, again, it’s ultimately up to you to reflect on how your EcoType applies to how you approach environmental issues.
What is my complementary EcoType?
Your complementary EcoType is the environmental framework that differs from yours the most. It’s easy to identify your complementary EcoType phrase: just go to your EcoTypes chart and look for the sector opposite your dot. For your Knowledge suffix, if yours is Old just choose New and vice versa; if yours is Integral just choose either Old or New.
Complementarity is a principle derived from physics, in which two opposing descriptions of reality are each true, yet a fuller truth arises from considering them both. The differences embedded in EcoTypes arise from our differing interactions with reality and can be a strength, if we are willing to engage with people whose EcoTypes differ from—indeed, may be the opposite of—ours.
You may want to explore your complementary EcoType by engaging with someone who has been assigned it. Complementarity isn’t about agreement!…but it’s not about simple disagreement either. Exploring your complementary EcoType is more like creative tension, whereby your EcoType is true to your experience of reality, the complementary EcoType is true to a differing experience of reality, and the both offer a fuller truth—even though they may contradict each other. This may sound impossible…but try it!
Why didn’t I receive an EcoType or complementary EcoType?
You may have received a notice on your report that, due to a Place and/or Action score of 0, you weren’t assigned an EcoType (though your Place/Action scores will be shown on the EcoType chart). As a result, you are situated right between two (or more) EcoTypes! This is not necessarily a bad thing. Feel free to take the EcoTypes survey again: maybe next time your scores will place you into an EcoType—and then you will receive your complementary EcoType as well.
How do our EcoTypes relate to our global priorities?
Most of us think a lot about the things immediately around us, but we also share this larger world, so EcoTypes is designed to prompt discussions around our respective global priorities.
And the possibility we consider in EcoTypes—many care, just differently—almost certainly applies to our global priorities. These differences may arise in part from our differing environmental frameworks—our EcoTypes.
The EcoTypes survey includes a section on your global priorities, based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the same way that your EcoType—your environmental framework—is related to a wide range of considerations (EcoTypes axes) including but not limited to what we think of as “environmental” ones, the SDGs include a wide range of global priorities, including but not limited to “environmental” ones. So, for instance, Climate Action is an SDG, but so are No Poverty, Gender Equality, and others.
Compare your EcoTypes report to that of a friend or classmate. Share the top four global priorities you selected, as well as your respective EcoTypes. Can you see any possible connections?