Near the end of “Is There a Free-Market Economist in the House?,” Dan Klein and Charlotta Stern say: “Economists, then, are free-market compared to other social scientists. What about compared to ordinary Americans? Unfortunately, no one has a good handle on that question.” They kindly tip their hats to me, but still, the question remains: How would the average American score on their survey?

We could actually administer it to a random sample of Americans, but that’s a lot of work. So I propose the following short-cut: I will take the survey while role-playing an average American. I think I am well-qualified for this task: Not only am I an avid student of public opinion, but I’ve been playing role-playing games since I was nine years old!

All of Klein and Stern’s questions mention a government policy, then ask one’s attitude toward it. The options are: “strongly support,” (=1) “mildly support,” (=2) “have mixed feelings,” (=3) “oppose mildly,” (=4) and “oppose strongly” (=5). Here are the questions, followed by the answer I would give if I were a typical American.

Getting into character… OK, now I’m an average American. Here’s what I think:

1. Tariffs on imported goods to protect American industries and jobs.

Strongly support.

2. Minimum wage laws.

Strongly support.

3. Workplace safety regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Strongly support.

4. Pharmaceutical market regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Strongly support.

5. Air-quality and water-quality regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Strongly support.

6. Laws making it illegal for private parties to discriminate (on the basis of race, gender, age, ethnicity, religion or sexual-orientation) against other private parties, in employment or accommodations?

Strongly support.

7. Laws restricting the use and exchange of “hard” drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Strongly support.

8. Laws restricting prostitution.

Mildly support.

9. Laws restricting gambling.

Mildly support.

10. Laws restricting gun ownership.

Mildly support.

11. Government ownership of industrial enterprises.

Have mixed feelings.

12. Redistributive policies (transfer and aid programs and tax progressivity).

Mildly support.

13. Government production of schooling (k through 12).

Strongly support.

14. Using monetary policy to tune the economy:

Mildly support.

15. Using fiscal policy to tune the economy.

Mildly support.

16. Tighter rather than looser controls on immigration.

Strongly support.

17. American military aid or presence abroad to promote democracy and the rule of law.

Have mixed feelings.

18. Foreign aid and assistance by such organizations as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and US AID.

Oppose strongly.

OK, now I’m out of character.

My simulated average American’s average score: 1.78/5, versus an average score of 2.64/5 for Klein and Stern’s sample of economists. Not much difference? Well, considering the fact that all of these policies are the status quo, I think it’s a big difference.

To see this, suppose we transform Klein and Stern’s score into a Doubt Index. A person who gets all 1’s has a 0 Doubt Index – he strongly supports all existing policies. A person who gets all 5’s has a 1 Doubt Index – he strongly opposes all existing policies. My average American has a Doubt Index of about .2. Their average economist has an average Doubt Index of .41 – more than twice the average American’s.

Is my role-playing methodology sound? Well, I’m not going to use it in an academic article. But I think my approach does give us a pretty “good handle,” on whether economists are more pro-market than the average American. The right answer is: Of course.