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Study Reveals that Conservatives Have Lower I.Q.

A new study conducted by the Brock University in Ontario reveals that conservatives tend to have lower I.Q. than Liberals. Conservatives are likely to be racist as well. This comes as absolutely no surprise to me. Just turn your TV to a conservative network and as a liberal, you’ll only see and hear ignorance. But now, we have science to back that up!

The study was published in Psychological Science and it showed that people who scored low on childhood I.Q. tests are more likely to develop bigoted values and grow socially conservative politics in adulthood.

It’s no secret that I.Q. tests have been a hot topic among psychologists for many years of whether they truly show a person’s intelligence quotient.

The study’s lead author and professor of psychology, Dr. Gordon Hodson, explained his findings to Live Science. He said that there is evidence of vicious circle as people of low I.Q. in childhood tend to lean towards socially conservative ideologies. These people aren’t open to change and sequentially they tend to be prejudice.

It’s relatively simple actually; the doctor explains that conservatives follow structure and order. It is much easier for them to make sense of order and structure rather than disarray and turmoil. Therefore the less intelligent will lean towards more controllable ideals.  Dr. Hodson also added that unfortunately many of these qualities contribute to prejudice.

The Huffington Post spoke to Dr. Brian Nosek, a University of Virginia psychologist and h e told them the following:

“Reality is complicated and messy,” he told The Huffington Post in an email. “Ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simpler solution. So, it may not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies.”

Nevertheless Nosek did say that less intelligent people might also be attracted to liberal “simplifying ideologies” just like the conservative ones. Basically all socially conservative people are not prejudiced, and all prejudiced persons are not conservative.

Furthermore, the study consisted of 15,874 persons, this data set from the UK. From the 15,874 persons, Dr. Hodson and Michael A Busseri found that lower general intelligence in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology.

Additionally, a secondary analysis of US data set established a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on anti-homosexual prejudice a relation partially mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact.

What the researchers concluded from this research was that right-wing ideologies, which are socially conservative and authoritarian represent a mechanism through which cognitive ability is linked with prejudice.

The doctors even added an example: “research has revealed that individuals who more strongly endorse social conservatism have greater cognitive rigidity, less cognitive flexibility and lower integrative complexity. Socially conservative individuals also perform less well than liberals on standardized ability tests.”

I believe that Bill Maher has a better way to put it; Conservatives live in a Bubble where no facts will enter but only bullshit gets out!

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About Nicole Hawker

My favorite things to do is swimming, playing tennis and watch movies, TV shows and documentaries. I like to be aware of what's happening in the world and I have to admit that I'll never understand politicians. I design and build information systems for a living. The job pays well however it gets quite tiresome sometimes. I discovered two years ago that I have some kind of passion for writing so in 2010 I started this blog in hope that people will share a piece of their mind.

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