Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice

[CaseAgainstFaith]

There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.

The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.

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.

People with lower cognitive abilities also had less contact with people of other races.

"This finding is consistent with recent research demonstrating that intergroup contact is mentally challenging and cognitively draining, and consistent with findings that contact reduces prejudice," said Hodson, who along with his colleagues published these results online Jan. 5 in the journal Psychological Science.osek gave another example to illustrate the dangers of taking the findings too literally.

"We can say definitively men are taller than women on average," he said. "But you can't say if you take a random man and you take a random woman that the man is going to be taller. There's plenty of overlap."

Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that strict right-wing ideology might appeal to those who have trouble grasping the complexity of the world.

"Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order," Hodson said, explaining why these beliefs might draw those with low intelligence. "Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice."

source - http://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conservatism-racism.html

Well this is going to piss a lot of conservatives off lol.  However joking aside it does attempt to offer rationality to why the true right wing nut jobs are the way they are.    What do you all think?

[Mechtaur]

Reminds me of another study that was similar to this one. Basically, it pointed out that people who label themselves as "conservatives" and hold the ideology tend to have larger areas of the brain devoted to fear.

[Captain Jack Harkness]

I hate to say it, but this explains so much.

Also, inb4 Fox News.

[Lithp]

Bah, this contradicts the First Law of Conservative Science:

If I don't like it, it's wrong.

[largeham]

How much of this is genetic and how much of this is related to their upbringing.

Edit: spelling derp

[Captain Jack Harkness]

How much os this is genetic and how much of this is related to their upbringing.

That's a good question.

[Osama bin Bambi]

Liberal bias! Liberal bias!

/Freeper

[rosenewock21]

Reality has a liberal bias.

/Stephen Colbert

[Old Viking]

They needed a study?

[SkyTrekTower]

This was the important part to me:

People with lower cognitive abilities also had less contact with people of other races.

It has been shown that those who have been exposed to a greater variety of humanity are less likely to hold prejudicial views.  For instance those who have gay friends are more likely to be pro-gay marriage, and those with Jewish friends are less likely to be anti-Semitic.  Also, social conservatism typically comes from more rural areas which tend to be very white with a very religious population.  Thus it makes sense that those areas are where you are more likely to find people with prejudicial views.  Not saying that everyone in rural areas holds such views, just saying you are more likely to find said views in a rural place compared to an urban area with a diverse population.

[Vene]

How much os this is genetic and how much of this is related to their upbringing.

That's a good question.

I'm pretty sure conservatism doesn't directly cause low IQ, so I'm not sure why it matters in this context. You can probably search pubmed for studies related to the genetic portion of IQ. Also, just a heads up, you're forgetting environment (which really is different than upbringing).

[Osama bin Bambi]

How much os this is genetic and how much of this is related to their upbringing.

That's a good question.

I'm pretty sure conservatism doesn't directly cause low IQ, so I'm not sure why it matters in this context. You can probably search pubmed for studies related to the genetic portion of IQ. Also, just a heads up, you're forgetting environment (which really is different than upbringing).

I think conservative political views and religious fundamentalism are not due to a low intelligence, but rather a lack of education stemming from a lack of resources in that country. Countries with a low average IQ are also poorer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_Global_Inequality

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

I'm not even remotely shocked, particularly when it comes to the correlation between low IQ and racism.

[largeham]

How much os this is genetic and how much of this is related to their upbringing.

That's a good question.

I'm pretty sure conservatism doesn't directly cause low IQ, so I'm not sure why it matters in this context. You can probably search pubmed for studies related to the genetic portion of IQ. Also, just a heads up, you're forgetting environment (which really is different than upbringing).

I thought the article said low IQ causes conservatism. I probably should have included environment with upbringing.

That said, re social conservatism, I have met quite a few people who are quite well educated and would be considered intelligent but are quite racist, sexist and/or homophobic*. I've also seen the opposite.*

* Anecdote alert

[Jack Mann]

Which the article covers, using the analogy that women are, on average, shorter than men.  The fact that you can find a woman who is taller than a given man doesn't change that, though it does mean that you shouldn't necessarily assume that a woman will be short or a man will be tall, just as you shouldn't automatically assume a liberal is smart and a conservative is stupid.