People With Low IQ Tend to be Socially Conservative: New Study (Barf, BS & Junk Science Alert)

International Business Times ^ | 1/27/12 | By AMRUTHA GAYATHRI:

[Clint N. Suhks]

In a new study, bound to stir controversy, researchers have found that people with low IQ tend to have socially conservative ideals and prejudiced attitudes toward others, including people of different races and homosexuals.

The new study published earlier this month in the journal Psychological Science found that British children with lower general intelligence factor (similar to IQ) are more likely to be racially prejudiced as adults.

"We found that lower general intelligence in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology," lead researchers Gordon Hodson and Michael A. Busseri of Brock University, Canada, wrote in the abstract of the paper.

"We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups."

The study was conducted using two "large-scale, nationally representative U.K. data sets (N = 15,874)," and a secondary analysis of a U.S. data set. The secondary analysis confirmed the effect of poor reasoning skills behind homophobia, caused by authoritarianism and low intergroup contacts.

The conservative attitudes were measured by whether people agreed with statements like "Family life suffers if mum is working full-time," and "Schools should teach children to obey authority."

Attitudes towards other races were assessed with statements like "I wouldn't mind working with people from other races," which served to capture overt racism, while excluding people with unconscious and covert racial biases.

"Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice," the researchers told LiveScience.

Since there have been studies which established links between low levels of education and higher levels of prejudice, studying intelligence seemed a logical next step, the researchers said.

Simply put, the research findings are nothing short of calling social conservatives dumb. To be precise, the study, by and large, implicates social conservatives rather than the political conservatives.

However, the researchers have pointed out that the study doesn't imply that all conservatives are stupid and liberals intelligent.

"There are multiple examples of very bright conservatives and not-so-bright liberals, and many examples of very principled conservatives and very intolerant liberals," Hodson said.

LiveScience has published an article about the study, discussing its potential to upset people. "They've pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics," Brian Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia who was not involved in the study, told Live Science. "When one selects intelligence, political ideology and racism and looks at any of the relationships between those three variables, it's bound to upset somebody."

[Mike Darancette]

I’m a high IQ clinger - 150

[wbill]

Well, this explains why all of us FReepers are able only to grunt at each other and point at things.

Now, if you'll please excuse me, I've got some feces to throw at some DUmmie who keeps rattling my cage.

[Riodacat]

I was responding to your claim that you were a high IQ social conservative with a latin phrase which approximates the more common quote that "the exception proves the rule".
But now I question your claim of the High IQ. :)

[hobbes1]

Yes because the welfare state is made up of Republicsn voters rmfe

[joe fonebone]

ooohhhhh..... gonna be like THAT, eeehhhh... well, poo poo to you.. :)

[gingerales]

Being of Indian origin, I have to say that is a most racially ignorant comment you made, and kind of proved the author’s point.

[Riodacat]

O.K., let's see how smart you really are.
If you throw a white rock in the Black sea at the time of full moon, what will happen?

[Timocrat]

If you throw a white rock in the Black sea at the time of full moon, what will happen?

Is the top still on and how much, if any, has been drunk ? White Rock

[NorthStarStateConservative]

Then why do people with higher IQs tend to live in suburban areas, where they vote republican and people with lower IQs tend to live in urban areas, where they vote democratic?

[JoeDetweiler]

“Watch out Sam Harris, Gordon Hodson and Michael A. Busseri of Brock University are giving you competition for the worst use of statistics in an original paper.

Their “Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes: Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater Prejudice Through Right-Wing Ideology and Low Intergroup Contact” published in Psychological Science1—headlined in the press as Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice—is a textbook example of confused data, unrecognized bias, and ignorance of statistics.”

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=5118

[Riodacat]

O.K., you pass. ;)