High IQ people are prejudiced too

The findings below are reminiscent of Yancey's work. He looked at findings which showed conservatives to be more prejudiced and bigoted. He showed that, using similar research methods, you could show liberals to be prejudiced and bigoted too. The difference was the target. Conservatives tended to have dim views of homosexuals and blacks whereas liberals foamed at the mouth about Christians and conservatives

There is currently a small correlation between IQ and expressed liberalism.  High IQ people are quick to pick up on that the dominant political ideas are and to go along with such ideas for the sake of social acceptance.  Around the mid-20th century, when conservative ideas were dominant, high IQ people tended towards conservatism.  See here


It has long been believed that people with a low IQ are more likely to be prejudiced, including anti-gay attitudes and racism.  But new research suggests there may be more to the story.

The researchers looked at data from a survey which asked people to rate their feelings toward 24 different groups.

The survey also gauged participants' IQs using a measure of vocabulary that is linked with overall intelligence. As with previous studies, the results showed that people with low IQ showed more prejudice.

However, the researchers also found that people with higher IQs also showed prejudice.  What differed between the groups was who they showed prejudice towards.

The new study, which is published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, suggests that people with lower IQs tend to dislike minorities they perceive as liberal.

In contrast with this, the researchers suggest that people higher on the IQ scale are more prejudiced towards conservative groups, such as religious fundamentalists.

Speaking to Live Science, Dr Mark Brandt, a psychologist at Tilburg University in Holland, who co-led the study, said: 'Because our study finds this on both ends of the cognitive ability continuum, it suggests this isn't just something that's unique to people with low cognitive ability.

'The simplest explanation for this result is that both people with high and low cognitive ability seem to express prejudice towards people they disagree with.'

The researchers looked at data from the 2012 American National Election Studies survey to explore the prejudice that participants may have had.

As with previous studies, the results showed that people with low IQ showed more prejudice. However, the researchers also found that people with higher IQs also showed prejudice.

What differed between the groups was who they showed prejudice towards.

Low-IQ people tended to dislike groups that are perceived as liberal and that people have little choice about whether they join – such as blacks, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and gay people.

In contrast with this, higher-IQ people tended to dislike groups that are perceived as conservative and that people have a choice about whether they join – such as businesses, the military, and Christian fundamentalists.

The results came as a surprise to the researchers, as liberal people tend to be more open to experience.

Dr Brandt said: 'Even people who are open to new ideas show this link between perceiving somebody as having different attitudes than them and expressing prejudice. 'It's kind of depressingly robust.'

The researchers also looked at what is behind the tendency to dislike people you disagree with. They found that the strongest factor seems to be that people dislike other people who they perceive to have different moral values than they do.

Dr Brandt added: 'We want to be at a place where we can say, 'Yep, I disagree with you, but that doesn't mean I dislike you, necessarily.'  'But that seems to be something that's relatively rare.'

SOURCE

1 comment:

  1. I expect that if the truth be known, it would be seen like this:

    That intelligence increases with the extent of both good and evil in both directions, for both good and evil require intelligence to do more of what they do.

    If the scale of good and evil is represented by the x axis on a graph, with evil increasing infinitely towards (say) the left, and goodness increasing infinitely towards the right, and if intelligence is represented by the y axis, intersecting the x axis in the middle, then the arrangement of human good and evil with intelligence would be depicted as a symmetrical U curve, with the dumbest in the middle at the bottom of the curve, and the smartest of the good towards the upper right of the curve, and the smartest of the evil towards the upper left of the curve.

    The y axis, the a centre line, is a balance point, the midline of symmetry.

    Evil that is obvious to the eye, like common criminality, is at the bottom of the curve. Most criminals are pretty dumb.

    And the bottom of the curve where the most obvious and dumbest evil exists, is about as far in the direction of evil as most people can see, which is only as far as the common criminals and the dumber of the psychopaths.

    But as evil gets worse it gets smarter, and learns to dress itself as good. Goodness becomes its image, and the smarter it is the better it looks, and so the worst of the worst portray themselves as the best. They are at the top of the left of the curve.

    Ideas and influence naturally flow from the smarter to the dumber, down both sides of the curve towards the bottom centre, for the intelligent influence the less intelligent more than visa-versa.

    Looking at them two by two, we see that nearly every psychopath has a dumber mate that he uses and manipulates. And widening our vision we see that they are not isolated in pairs or little groups, but are part of the natural flow of influence that runs through all of us.

    And the smarter they are, the more agents they have, the less directly dirty their hands tend to get, the more voluminous and far reaching their evil, for others become their tools, all those dumber become their proxies, and the better and more caring is their image.

    Who is more evil, the obviously bad, or those who use and manipulate the bad, and who work through them?

    Left and right as we understand them in the western democracies are the battle of ideas presenting themselves as good. But how do we know which is true?

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