www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/intell...udice_n_1237796.html

Intelligence Study Links Low I.Q. To Prejudice, Racism, Conservatism

[There is a video at the end of the article at the Huffington Post.]

The Huffington Post Rebecca Searles
First Posted: 02/ 1/2012 8:52 am Updated: 02/ 1/2012 7:21 pm


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Maybe it's the ideologies that make people dumb...

Either way, none of this is a secret, why dont you watch "Idiocracy"?

Sometimes government needs to be proactive , and have the want to change. Other times government needs to slow down, and take it in. Im not for any political party, nor do I lean in a direction. Im stead fast till a candidate says something, worth voting for.
So I don't feel being a conservative makes you racist. That sounds like profiling, which could be taken as racist. But I try to stay away from politics, in the first place. Anything that comes between me and my studies is bad mojo.


MTFBWY-

IQ tests have been shown to only maintain relevance when adjusted for cultural differences. Low IQ scores were used to justify prejudice against african americans in the US for decades until psychologists realized that the culture they were growin up in didn't teach the things the test was looking for.

While I avoid referring to myself as liberal or conservative (I prefer to assess issues independently and come to a conclusion each time) we've seen in other studies just how different "conservative culture" in the US is from the rest of the nation. Its a combination of different sources of news as well as different valuation of religious belief and the sciences.

As such without knowing the nature of the questions and the method of delivery of those questions its difficult to assess the validity of any such claims. There is a known link between poorly developed brains and the ability to accept change but that wouldn't show up in an IQ test as that's not what they measure.

This is very provocative. But I'm wary of any study that says that any group of individuals is smarter than another. Especially by an IQ test! I don't believe IQ takes the different types of intelligences into account. So I can't bring myself to say that conservatives are stupid, even though I'm pretty liberal and know a FEW conservatives I consider to be pretty stupid (for the record, I equally abhor stupid liberals who have no idea why they're liberal. No conviction.) Yet, not all of the ones I've met, are. The big problem I have with conservatism in the United States is that IMHO the scale is tipped out of proportion. The political spectrum in the US has made conservative concepts go radical. Taking the full political spectrum into account most US liberals are not really liberal, at least, not by the standard of beyond 20 years ago. There used to be conservative intellectualism, now there's Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. I would say these examples are hardly intellectual, they seek merely to provoke and enrage. I see a lot of fear and emotional uproar from conservatives now-a-days, that can't be very healthy.

People are people. I'm a moderate, so I can be liberal or conservative depending on the issue, and I've seen liberals that are just as racist as any conservative racist. It's just that there are far less liberal circles that tolerate open racism than there are among conservatism. And of course, if you look back a few months to all that Occupy Wall Street crap, you'll see plenty of examples of liberal anti-Semitism. I mean, sure, you could invoke the image of some Baptist with 60 kids who keeps his wife locked in a closet protesting against abortion to make conservatives look dumb, but I think the image of an out of touch liberal thinking that gun control stops murder, or that the average person can affort to go out and buy a new hybrid on a whim or spend $700 at Whole Foods is equally stupid and infuriating.

Stupidity is not political. Anything human, politics included, is going to be stupid at some pount or another.

I came across this video just now and it does much to support my claim. If Ronald Reagan were alive and running for president today, he'd have a tough run with the GOP. A few conservatives have even shared my sentiment.

By stating that people of a certain belief structure tend to be less intelligent or that less intelligent people tend to follow a certain belief structure is a prejudice in itself. By merely implying that another’s beliefs may not be as good as yours (or just different) because you feel that you are more intelligent kind of sounds like one of the definitions of prejudice.

I think that Planet of Chaos and Red Lila made some very fine points. And in my opinion, rather than try and categorize the masses that don’t agree with your point of view; the ones conducting these studies should try to understand or even be able to identify with someone else’s position.

But maybe I’m just one of those less intelligent primitives that need to be shown the errors of my ways…
I’ve been wrong before!

Wescli Wardest wrote:


While this study doesn't claim that (it's inconclusive, only suggestive), it is not prejudice

Scientifically sound and factually based observations can never be prejudice

If there is a direct link between a certain set of beliefs and low intelligence then it is scientific fact, not opinionated 'fact'

Planet wrote:


The IQ test might not be the best way of measuring granted. But see my above points

There is no room for prejudice in science

In a perfect world I would be not be inclined to disagree with you, but "science" or scientific data can be manipulated to suit an agenda. Is it unethical? Yes! Does it happen? I'm quite sure it does! Look at all the money a mega-conglomerate like Monsanto spends each year to tell people their products are safe using "scientific data". Meanwhile, there is evidence to suggest that genetically altered food can cause intestinal lesions and high fructose corn syrup can make your internal organs develop a layer of fat which is very dangerous. Who should you believe? Who's science is more accurate?