Saturday, January 28, 2012

Low IQ behind some conservative beliefs

Following up on Fixer's post "Conservative = Stupid". EssEffChron:

“As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias,” LifeScience wrote.

Lead researcher Gordon Hodson, of Brock University in Ontario, concluded that people with low IQs are attracted to the hierarchy and structure in socially conservative institutions.

Two things that were conspicuous to me by their absence although they may not be in the direct scope of the study:

1. Stupid parents teach their stupid children stupid things, mainly hate, and

2. Stupid people are easily led by those who then use them against their own best interests and who clamor for more no matter how badly they're getting screwed. Seems to me that "us v them" works a lot better than "we" on the room-temperature IQ crowd.

There are a lot of very intelligent people who are way stupid too. Has more to do with outlook than with brains. Needs a separate study.

“They’ve pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics,” said Brian Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia who was not involved in the study. “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.”

Fuck 'em. Doesn't upset me a bit. Heh.

3 comments:

nunya said...

I've seen this study up close and personal. I believe it.

timr said...

IMPO Authoritarianism is more to the point than any other study.
Lots and lots of studies done, some multigenerational. Stupid people, like the rethug/teahaddists are IMO Authoritarian Followers. Which is how I think that newt went from 20 points down to winning by 20 points over just a couple of days. And to me it also explains how it was that religious fundimentalists simply ignored all of their hard held beliefs to vote for newt. And not forgetting the teahaddists, who claimed to be against everything that newt stands for, yet they also voted for him.
To me Authoritarianism is spreading rapidly among the rethug/teahaddist nations and I also, again just my opinion,believe that it is something that democrats dismiss at their peril. Hubris about how newt can be easily beat, if newt get the nomination, could very well spell disaster.
It has nothing to do with what he says or how many lies he tells. The Authoritarian Followers will blindly follow him the way the oh so law abiding German citizens followed hitler.
To me newt is the reincarnation of hitler. The only question is, is the number of Authoritarian Followers enough-if democrats follow thru on their threats not to vote for Obama and if the economy remains bad enough-that he could very well become the president. Which, IMO would be a disaster that the US might never recover from.
Authoritarianism is the problem, I have no idea what the solution might be. I have been reading every study on Authoritarianism that I have been able to find. Even talked to some of the authors of studies on Authoritarianism in the US. IMO it is something to be quite concerned about. The stupid parents study is just a side note to what Authoritarianism is and how it spreads from generation to generation.
Its constant companion is, of course, fascism. Which we are already the victims of due to the plutocracy that has bought the votes of many in congress.

Anonymous said...

Uh oh. Point #2 ("Stupid people are easily led by those who then use them against their own best interests...") explains the Republican voter. We're doomed...