Liberals and athiests are smarter

[Elmore Furth]

As young adults "very conservative" individuals had an average adolescent IQ of 95, whereas those who said they were "very liberal" averaged 106 in this study.

I always thought you guys were a really smart bunch.

(CNN) -- Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.

The IQ differences, while statistically significant, are not stunning -- on the order of 6 to 11 points -- and the data should not be used to stereotype or make assumptions about people, experts say. But they show how certain patterns of identifying with particular ideologies develop, and how some people's behaviors come to be.

The reasoning is that sexual exclusivity in men, liberalism and atheism all go against what would be expected given humans' evolutionary past. In other words, none of these traits would have benefited our early human ancestors, but higher intelligence may be associated with them.

The study looked at a large sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which began with adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The participants were interviewed as 18- to 28-year-olds from 2001 to 2002. The study also looked at the General Social Survey, another cross-national data collection source.
Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity linked to IQ

[polichick]

1. Not surprising, but interesting none the less. k&r

[WolverineDG]

2. but not smart enough to realize this has been posted many times already nt

[brewens]

3. I don't need a study to tell me that gap grows exponentially over the years!

[Fumesucker]

4. But Kanazawa is an utter whackjob....

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200803/why-we-are-losing-war

Here’s a little thought experiment. Imagine that, on September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers came down, the President of the United States was not George W. Bush, but Ann Coulter. What would have happened then? On September 12, President Coulter would have ordered the US military forces to drop 35 nuclear bombs throughout the Middle East, killing all of our actual and potential enemy combatants, and their wives and children. On September 13, the war would have been over and won, without a single American life lost.

Yes, we need a woman in the White House, but not the one who’s running.

[MUAD_DIB]

6. On September 14th the USA, if it wasn't nuked by Russia, would soon realize that

all the airborne radioactive particles would be quickly floating their way over Asia and then on to the western hemisphere.

[MUAD_DIB]

5. *138-142 myself, But I don't know how to milk a cow.

IQ doesn't mean you would be able to survive in the wild. High IQ doesn't necessarily mean that you have any street smarts either.




*I am planning to officially take the Mensa exam sometime soon. That Mensa membership and $3.50 will buy me a cappuccino someplace. :)

[Orrex]

7. If we liberals and/or atheists were so smart...

We'd figure out a way to stop posting this article over and over again. I mean, it isn't as though it's been featured on DU's front page for most of the day or anything...


:evilgrin:

[Ernesto]

9. I love to have the facts broadcasted!....... nt

[inna]

8. "This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women."

Interesting.

[RainDog]

11. cause it's a bullshit article

and I haven't commented on this on any of the other threads just because I was hoping it would go away...

but here it is again.

the article states that women were monogamous -- primatologists know is false. this article buys into REALLY REALLY OUTDATED stereotypes. I didn't read the study but the article is crap.

[Chemisse]

15. I think that is because sexual exclusivity

Tends to be more the natural way of being for women (evolutionarily speaking). Women needed to have a single, committed mate to help provide support so she could bear children. That offered the best chance of her children surviving to reproduce.

Whereas men don't have that same degree of interest in monogamy. They might be just as likely to have offspring who survived to adulthood if they spread their sperm among many females.

[rug]

10. That's not how you spell atheists.

[Orrex]

12. Thank God that someone pointed that out!

[TexasObserver]

13. The two biggest murderers in world history were atheists.

Mao and Stalin.

I'll agree that liberals are smarter than conservatives, but atheists? Don't know about that.

I believe in God, but my concept of God is nothing like the anthropomorphic illusions contrived by religion.

[mia]

14. They give themselves the freedom to think and not likely to be

inhibited by the idea of a vengeful God or limited by what they give up to accept the
principles of Fascism.

[DavidDvorkin]

16. How many duplicates does this make?

This news item keeps getting posted on DU.