HOW RED IS MY CART?
METHODOLOGY 2026.1

Evidence first.
Score second.

We don’t decide whether a company is good or bad. We show publicly available signals and explain exactly how the result was calculated.

Three layers that never blur together

  1. Raw evidence: what a source actually documents, with its URL, date, retrieval time, and quality tier.
  2. Structured interpretation: a normalized contribution ratio, endorsement, ownership fact, or other defined signal.
  3. Deterministic score: code applies published weights. The language model does not choose the final political number.

Evidence period

The launch methodology covers political activity from January 1, 2024 through the calculation date. Every result freezes its evidence period and methodology version so it can be audited later.

Initial party-alignment weights

weighted signal ÷ available valid weight → normalized -100…+100 → displayed 0…100

When a category is missing, its weight is redistributed across available valid evidence. Missing evidence is never treated as neutral.

Trump is a separate question

General Republican donations do not produce a Trump score. The Trump meter requires explicit Trump or anti-Trump evidence such as contributions, endorsements, fundraising, or documented statements.

Geographic facts stay factual

Ultimate ownership, headquarters, manufacturing, and product origin are stored separately. A headquarters location never creates a political classification.

Confidence

Confidence considers source reliability, the number of independent signals, and evidence-type diversity. Unknown is shown whenever the evidence bar is not met.

Community perception

Community votes never change the evidence score. They form a separately labeled perception index and can trigger a fresh research review when disagreement or vote velocity is unusually high.

Limitations and corrections

Ownership, executives, political activity, and public positions change. Automated product recognition can also be wrong. Results are estimates, not endorsements, accusations, or statements of company policy. Every product result provides a route to submit a sourced correction.