Interactive Shiny app visualizing how political elites associate words with "left" and "right" ideology, based on Warode (2025).
Live App: https://lukas-warode.shinyapps.io/lr-words-map/
The app maps word associations along two dimensions:
- X-axis (Position): Mean left-right self-placement of people using the word (1-11 scale)
- Y-axis (Semantics): How "left" or "right" a word is semantically (-1 to +1)
This creates four quadrants:
| Quadrant | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| In-Ideology Left | Left-leaning people describing "left" | justice, peace, solidarity |
| Out-Ideology Left | Right-leaning people describing "left" | socialism, paternalism |
| In-Ideology Right | Right-leaning people describing "right" | patriotism, family, freedom |
| Out-Ideology Right | Left-leaning people describing "right" | racism, nationalism |
- Interactive scatter plot with click-to-select words
- Distribution plot showing left-right self-placement of respondents
- Framework diagram highlighting the word's quadrant position
- Downloadable figures (PNG format)
- Mobile-responsive design
The app uses curated data from German GLES candidate studies (2013, 2017, 2021):
| File | Description |
|---|---|
lr_pos_sem_curated.csv |
Main word data (229 curated words) |
df_exp_left_curated.csv |
Individual-level data for left associations |
df_exp_right_curated.csv |
Individual-level data for right associations |
The app displays different means in different contexts:
| Location | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scatter plot / UI | lr_self_mean |
Weighted mean of ALL respondents |
| Distribution plot | lr_self_mean_left or _right |
Mean of the specific distribution shown |
Example: "social (sozial)" shows Position 3.37 in UI (all 741 respondents) but x̄ = 3.29 in the distribution plot (659 left-association respondents only).
├── app.R # Main application
├── R/
│ ├── mod_scatter_plot.R # Main plot module
│ ├── mod_word_details.R # Side panel module
│ ├── utils_plots.R # Plot functions
│ └── utils_data.R # Data loading
├── data/ # CSV data files
└── www/custom.css # Styling
- R Shiny with bslib (Bootstrap 5)
- plotly for interactive scatter plot
- ggplot2 for static plots
- Deployed on shinyapps.io
Warode, L. (2025). Mapping left-right associations: a framework using
open-ended survey responses and political positions. Humanities and
Social Sciences Communications, 12:1318.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05679-x
- Author: Lukas Warode
- Email: lukas.warode@uni-mannheim.de