Posted on 01/27/2012 9:33:00 AM PST by 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."
Except conservatives are racists, liberals are.
Hey, asshole author of the article; I’ll put my IQ up against yours anytime. Moron!
All you need to do is scan the faces at an Obama rally to disprove this.
I guess that means the liberal indoctrination in the schools is working, and that the “smart” kids are buying into it.
So this tells me that the well educated are what got us into the mess that we are in today.
It must be true, my IQ is only 131
Doesn't exactly say this in the title.
and people with an even lower IQ become slaves to welfare then vote for liberals all their lives....
Well, that would mean that democrats supporting their party of slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow, separate but equal, and non-supporters of the Civil Rights Act are by definition at a lower level of general intelligence.
This is so patently dishonest that it ought to be dismissed on its face, but undoubtedly the corrupt MSM will herald this as some divine revelation.
Ever wonder why “prizes” such as the Nobel and the Oscars and the Academy Awards always go to those with making a left-wing political statement? Well, here is exhibit “B” in that regard.
Yeah, all those wards of the state who are so stupid they’re unable to take care of themselves are republicans.
Meanwhile, when Democrats look to register voters, they go straight to the prisons, welfare lines, and mental health centers.
They know where their real constituency lies.
You have to understand some of the motivations underlying liberalism, the foremost being the desire to feel good about oneself. Being associated with “the smart people” is one of the ways to accomplish this.
It’s no wonder we see skewed studies such as this - the left HAS to self-affirm that they are superior. There is very little other reason to even BE a leftist.
A study by “scientists” that offers “proof” of conservatives being both racist and stupid? I’m shocked they would say such a thing (yawn). I’m sure they wouldn’t lie about it. (Like they have for decades)
But I thought people in the UK were all cultured socialists living in harmony?
Who was that guy a few years ago on Imus who told us this president has an IQ that’s off the charts but didn’t know what it was?
People with high IQs tend to have inflated egos, exaggerate their importance in the universe, deny there is anything greater than themselves, reject the notion of a Higher Power and therefore His universal Truths and Laws.
But what do I know - I am just a social conservative with a tested IQ of 147.
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