Campaign director
Input
Speech, debate answer, platform plank, paid media frame.
Output
Swing tribe lift, opposition activation, earned-media risk, and revised message tests.
Stress-test campaigns, speeches, policies, launches, and executive statements before they polarize.
GO/REVISE/DELAY brief · CiviSphere Polarization Index · 27 behavioral tribes
Built on CiviSphere v1.0 · auditable risk drivers · boss-ready export reports
Paste a launch, policy, or apology. WindTunnel returns a verdict, backlash narratives, stakeholder map, exact weak phrases, and a safer rewrite.
Input Templates
173/500Use the full simulation for all 27 tribes, scenario branches, and saved reports after this quick verdict.
The output is structured for a launch meeting: verdict, numeric model, backlash narratives, stakeholder positions, weak language, rewrite, timeline, and a copyable report.
Powered by CiviSphere v4.2 - 27 behavioral tribes - structured signal model - optional Gemini enrichment
Wind Tunnel turns a draft decision into an executive-grade risk brief: who reacts, why they react, what can be changed, and which evidence supports the call.
Input
Speech, debate answer, platform plank, paid media frame.
Output
Swing tribe lift, opposition activation, earned-media risk, and revised message tests.
Input
CEO statement, AI policy, DEI shift, merger announcement, crisis response.
Output
Board memo, backlash controls, trusted messengers, employee and customer risk split.
Input
Creative brief, launch narrative, audience assumption, client taboo list.
Output
Audience map, narrative traps, creative variants, and shareable proof for client review.
Input
Regulation, reform proposal, ballot language, public implementation plan.
Output
Coalition map, implementation resistance, public trust risk, and bridge-group language.
Every organization faces the same challenge: decisions made without understanding the societal landscape fail. Not because the idea was wrong, but because the reception was unpredictable. Wind Tunnel fixes that.
when product launches misread cultural signals across demographic groups
Allianz Economic Research 2024
cited failure to anticipate cross-tribal backlash as the primary cause
Harvard Business School
Societal polarization ranked among top systemic risks for the next decade
WEF Global Risks Report 2025
From Bud Light to Disney, from Tesla to campus protests — organizations that misjudge polarization dynamics face boycotts, reputational damage, and talent flight. Wind Tunnel by TACITUS is the most efficient way to test polarization risk, find common ground, and reduce backlash before you commit budget or reputation.
Organizations that misread the polarization landscape face boycotts, reputational damage, and lost market value — often from decisions that seemed routine.
Consumer boycotts triggered by perceived political positioning have erased billions in market value. A single social media post can activate tribal opposition at scale. Wind Tunnel catches this before it happens.
Marketing executives report that political and societal risk is now a top concern for brand strategy. Most have no quantitative tool to measure it before launch.
CEO political affiliations, PAC donations, and corporate policy positions are tracked, scored, and weaponized by activist groups on both sides of the political spectrum.
Companies face backlash whether they advance OR retreat on ESG, DEI, or social issues. The polarization risk is bidirectional — silence is not safety.
Wind Tunnel by TACITUS was built to close this gap. Our CiviSphere model maps the behavioral terrain of 332 million Americans — 27 behavioral tribes across 6 macro-categories, each profiled on moral foundations, psychographic dimensions, and signal-weighted reaction models. Know your polarization exposure in 60 seconds.
From the boardroom to the campaign war room — Wind Tunnel gives decision-makers quantified intelligence before every high-stakes communication.
Test messaging before it reaches voters
Simulate how 27 behavioral tribes react to your messaging. Find the framing that maximizes cross-tribal support before you spend media budget.
Score announcements before the press conference
Run every major announcement through Wind Tunnel. Get a Polarization Risk Score, identify hostile tribes, and reframe for minimal backlash.
Polarization-proof creative before media spend
Pre-test campaigns against all 27 tribes. See which creative concepts carry hidden tribal triggers before you commit production budget.
Model stakeholder reactions before the vote
Map the full coalition and opposition landscape for any proposed regulation. Find narrative bridges between strange-bedfellow opponents.
Quantify political exposure for the board
Get quantified, reproducible Polarization Risk Scores for every major initiative. Export board-ready briefings backed by peer-reviewed methodology.
Free · No credit card required
From landscape definition to auditable intelligence in four clear steps.
Enter the speech, announcement, policy, creative brief, or crisis response exactly as your audience will see it.
CiviSphere scopes stakeholders, affected groups, frames, and missing context from free text.
The model estimates reaction across 27 behavioral tribes, including bridge groups, opposition clusters, and intensity drivers.
See where values, identity, trust, economics, and media dynamics diverge.
The engine calculates affective spread, backlash pressure, viral amplification, bridge deficit, coalition feasibility, and more.
Scores are decomposed so teams can audit what drove the recommendation.
Receive a GO/REVISE/DELAY call, message tests, mitigation owners, boss memo, and exportable report.
Every output is traceable, reproducible, shareable, and ready for leadership review.
Real scenarios. Real tribal data. See exactly what Wind Tunnel surfaces — risk scores, polarization drivers, narrative levers, and per-tribe reframing strategies.
A monthly $1,000 universal basic income for all adult U.S. citizens, funded through a combination of a 10% value-added tax (VAT) and a 2% annual wealth tax on net worth exceeding $50 million.
COMPOSITE SCORE
37.2M population represented
142.5M population represented
All tribes agree the current means-tested welfare bureaucracy is inefficient, demeaning, and creates perverse incentives. Even strong UBI opponents prefer unconditional cash over the status quo.
Bridge Strategy: Frame UBI as welfare simplification, not expansion. Emphasize eliminating bureaucratic overhead and trusting individuals.
From tech workers fearing AI displacement to rural communities losing factories, economic insecurity cuts across ideological lines. The desire for a financial floor unites more than it divides.
Bridge Strategy: Lead with shared economic vulnerability. Use messengers from diverse economic backgrounds telling parallel stories.
Both populist right and progressive left deeply distrust billionaires and corporate influence. The wealth tax component resonates across this unlikely coalition.
Bridge Strategy: Position UBI as the people reclaiming wealth from elites. Use anti-establishment framing that avoids left-right coding.
Rebrand away from "Universal Basic Income" to avoid welfare connotations. "Freedom Dividend" or "American Dividend" activates patriotic identity frames.
Impact: Reduces opposition by 12-18% among right-leaning tribes
Deploy a Silicon Valley CEO + Rust Belt union leader + evangelical pastor as joint spokespeople to break the "progressive project" frame.
Impact: Shifts 3 swing tribes toward support
Publish CBO-style scoring showing exact revenue projections. Show how UBI consolidates fragmented welfare programs.
Impact: Neutralizes #1 objection among centrists
Propose distribution through existing IRS direct deposit infrastructure. Publish privacy impact assessment. No new surveillance systems.
Impact: Reduces libertarian opposition by 20%
Launch a deficit-neutral fiscal model with CBO-style scoring, showing exact revenue projections from VAT and wealth tax, to neutralize the "how do we pay for it" objection dominating centrist and right-leaning discourse.
Pair a Silicon Valley CEO with a Rust Belt union leader and a conservative evangelical pastor to demonstrate cross-tribal support and break the "this is a progressive project" frame.
Rebrand from "Universal Basic Income" to "American Dividend" or "Freedom Dividend" to avoid triggering welfare-state associations in right-leaning tribes and to activate patriotic-populist identity frames.
Publish a detailed privacy impact assessment and propose distribution through existing tax infrastructure (IRS direct deposit) rather than new systems, to address surveillance and CBDC fears among libertarian tribes.
Commission and widely publicize a 3-year randomized controlled trial in a politically mixed metro area to build an evidence base that satisfies data-driven centrists and defuses ideological objections with empirical results.
Select any scenario to see its full strategic analysis — key findings, polarization dynamics, narrative levers, and watch-list tribes.
Strategic Intelligence
Populist Right splits 60/40 on economic anxiety lines — MAGA Nationalists see $1K as a government handout that "replaces work ethic," while Rust Belt Protectionists are mildly supportive if framed as "trade adjustment assistance."
Progressive Left unanimously supports the principle but fractures on funding: Tech-Optimist Liberals endorse the VAT mechanism; Urban Woke Socialists demand a pure wealth tax and oppose VAT as regressive.
Fiscal Moderate Democrats (centrist bloc, 14.2M) become the decisive swing — they support the concept but reject the 10% VAT as inflationary, making them the blocking coalition.
Polarization Index of 74/100 is driven almost entirely by the economic axis (left-right), not the social/cultural axis — meaning messaging must be economic, not identity-based.
Projected net acceptance: 41% — just below majority. A 6-point shift in Suburban Swing Voters (18.4M) would tip the simulation to majority acceptance.
Do not launch with VAT as the funding mechanism — it activates Fiscal Moderates as opponents and collapses the centrist bloc. Lead with the wealth tax framing exclusively. Target Suburban Swing Voters with economic security messaging before the policy drops.
Economic redistribution vs. earned reward — left/right economic axis, not social/cultural
Frame as "economic floor, not ceiling" — emphasizing that UBI supplements work rather than replaces it dissolves the "work ethic" objection in 4 of 5 resistant tribes.
Methodology Note
Haidt Moral Foundations: Fairness/Cheating dominates (is $1K universal, or does it reward non-work?). Economic Axis scoring (-68 average for supporters vs. +44 for opponents) predicts the divide more reliably than party ID alone.
Comparable Case: Alaska Permanent Fund (1982): universal dividend with high bipartisan approval when framed as a resource dividend, not welfare.
See what your decisions look like through 27 tribal lenses.
Intelligence-grade polarization analysis for the professionals who shape decisions that affect millions.
Test legislation before it reaches the floor. Identify opposition vectors, build pre-emptive coalitions, and time your rollout for maximum acceptance.
See Example →Know which tribes will amplify and which will attack. Get tribe-specific messaging guides and messenger recommendations for every audience segment.
See Example →Simulate your ESG announcement, product launch, or workforce policy. Understand the political risk landscape before your competitors frame the narrative.
See Example →Map the coalition landscape for any policy position. Find strange bedfellows, identify swing segments, and optimize your messaging for maximum reach.
See Example →36 questions. 4 rounds. Based on Moral Foundations Theory, the Schwartz Values Survey, and psychographic research from the Pew Research Center. Discover where you sit on America's real political landscape.
Based on the CiviSphere behavioral model — 27 tribes modeling 332M Americans
Every high-stakes decision carries hidden polarization risk. Wind Tunnel turns each scenario into a quantified brief with tribe drivers, safer alternatives, and a leadership-ready next step.
You're about to launch a senate campaign with a border security platform.
Your immigration framing inadvertently activates resentment among Rust Belt Protectionists who agree on the policy but reject the elite messenger delivering it.
In 60 seconds, see which tribes support you, which are persuadable, and the exact reframing that bridges your base with swing voters — before you spend a dollar on media.
You're launching a new line of 'sustainable' consumer products at a premium price.
Your 'sustainability' messaging triggers Economic Anxiety Activation in working-class segments who read it as elite virtue signaling they can't afford.
In 60 seconds, see the Polarization Risk Score for your messaging, identify hostile tribes, and find alternative framing that resonates across income brackets without alienating your core audience.
Your agency is announcing a new carbon emissions regulation.
Your policy violates the sacred economic values of Rural Independence Movement and Climate Skeptic Realists simultaneously, generating a cross-tribal backlash coalition that stalls implementation.
In 60 seconds, map the full opposition coalition, find unexpected allies among Eco-Pragmatist Bipartisans, and identify the economic framing that reduces resistance by 40%.
Your CEO wants to make a statement on the recent Supreme Court decision.
Any statement activates one tribal coalition while alienating another. Silence is not neutral — 8 tribal groups interpret corporate silence as complicity.
In 60 seconds, see the Polarization Risk Score for every framing option, identify which statement minimizes total backlash, and get the exact language that threads the needle.
Your brand is launching a national TV campaign featuring diverse casting.
Your creative inadvertently triggers Anti-Woke Cultural Warriors (10.6M Americans) while your diversity signals are too subtle to activate Progressive Left support you were hoping for.
In 60 seconds, score your creative brief across all 27 tribes, identify the hidden tribal triggers in your visual language, and find the universal framing that maximizes reach without backlash.
Your board wants a quarterly briefing on the company's political risk exposure.
Without quantified metrics, your risk assessment is subjective and unauditable — leaving the board unable to compare risk across decisions or track exposure over time.
In 60 seconds per scenario, generate reproducible Polarization Risk Scores with full methodology documentation — exactly the quantified, auditable intelligence boards can act on.
You're announcing a $4B acquisition of a company with a controversial history.
Your merger activates Elite Distrust signals in Conspiracy Pragmatists (9.9M) and MAGA Nationalists simultaneously — creating a viral narrative about monopoly power that overshadows the business rationale.
In 60 seconds, map the full tribal reaction landscape, identify the narrative frames that trigger viral opposition, and design a communication strategy that leads with economic benefit messaging.
A video of your product being misused in a dangerous way has gone viral.
Your crisis PR response inadvertently triggers Free Speech concerns among Libertarian tribes while your safety messaging activates Authoritarian Appeal in Populist Right segments — doubling the crisis.
In 60 seconds, score every response option for tribal reaction, identify which statement de-escalates across the most tribes simultaneously, and get counter-narrative strategies before the news cycle moves on.
Every major messaging failure was preventable. Wind Tunnel quantifies the risk before you take it.
Product launch that alienates key demographic segments. Without pre-testing across behavioral tribes, a single misjudged tagline becomes a crisis management exercise.
Policy announcement without stakeholder mapping. The coalition you didn't see coming organizes overnight, and your 6-month timeline becomes a 12-month battle.
Creative that resonates with 40% but actively enrages 30%. By the time you pull the media buy, the negative earned media has already multiplied the damage.
The most cost-effective way to understand how polarization will hit your idea — before it does.
Based on user feedback during pilot testing. Names abbreviated for privacy. Results may vary by use case and scenario complexity.
"We were about to launch a national benefits campaign with a six-figure media budget behind it. Wind Tunnel flagged in under a minute that our core framing would be seen as patronizing by three of the largest swing tribes — groups we needed. That single simulation saved us weeks of focus groups and a very expensive misstep. The polarization breakdown alone was worth it."
"Our product team assumed our new pricing model would only upset libertarian-leaning power users. Wind Tunnel showed us it was actually going to create a coalition between our progressive customers and our conservative ones — united by a shared distrust of corporate pricing. That's the kind of counterintuitive intelligence you can't get from a survey. We redesigned the rollout, avoided the backlash, and kept both cohorts."
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White-glove polarization intelligence.
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Wind Tunnel doesn't invent its own theory. Every calculation is grounded in peer-reviewed research with thousands of citations.
Graham, Haidt & Nosek (2009)
Six innate moral dimensions — Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, Liberty — that predict political attitudes better than demographics alone.
How We Use It
Every tribe is profiled across all 6 foundations. Policy friction is calculated from moral profile misalignment.
Mackinac Center, adapted from Overton (1990s)
Maps policy positions from "Unthinkable" to "Current Policy" based on population-weighted acceptance, revealing how close an idea is to mainstream viability.
How We Use It
Each simulation places the policy on the Overton spectrum and projects trajectory over time.
Iyengar, Sood & Lelkes (2012)
Measures hostility between groups (not just ideological disagreement). Perceived polarization almost always exceeds actual polarization — a key insight for strategy.
How We Use It
Three-dimensional polarization analysis separates ideological, affective, and perceived dimensions.
Deffuant-Weisbuch & Hegselmann-Krause
Opinion dynamics models showing how people only update beliefs when exposed to views within their "confidence bound" — explaining why some policies entrench divisions.
How We Use It
Temporal decay and cascade risk predictions use bounded confidence to model opinion shift over time.
Transparent methodology. Every indicator includes a methodology tooltip explaining exactly how it's calculated. No black boxes. No proprietary algorithms without explanation. The CiviSphere tribe model is open-source and auditable.
Every output is grounded in peer-reviewed social science and validated against real-world outcomes.
15 historical events. Pearson r > 0.72 correlation. Direction accuracy across ACA, Dobbs, CHIPS Act, and 12 more.
34 documented KPIs with academic citations. SHA-256 reproducibility tokens. Open methodology.
Wind Tunnel by TACITUS
Run your first simulation in 2 minutes. No credit card required.
BUILT FOR
Built on the CiviSphere open-source behavioral model. Enterprise models available. Full methodology at tacitus.ai/methodology.