"Why Liberals Are More Intelligent Than Conservatives" - Psychology Today Magazine

I found this article to be extremely interesting, with a simple, yet profound logic.

I tend to agree. Liberals ARE more intelligent than conservatives, as a general trend. The article clearly explains why Conservatives and Liberals behave the way they do. It espouses the theory that many people hold dear that it is a persons intelligence level that infers their behaviour and life-view, rather than the other way around. This makes perfect sense.

Incidentally, this finding substantiates one of the persistent complaints among conservatives. Conservatives often complain that liberals control the media or the show business or the academia or some other social institutions. The Hypothesis explains why conservatives are correct in their complaints. Liberals do control the media, or the show business, or the academia, among other institutions, because, apart from a few areas in life (such as business) where countervailing circumstances may prevail, liberals control all institutions. They control the institutions because liberals are on average more intelligent than conservatives and thus they are more likely to attain the highest status in any area of (evolutionarily novel) modern life.

I loved the last paragraph, which I have posted here for you all to see. There are too many whiny ATS'ers that bitch and moan about the evil 'Liberal Media'. It doesn't surprise me, it's because that media force you're complaining about is smarter than you, and it doesn't sit well.



This graph made giggle somewhat as well. Bring on the flamethrowers!!!

The Revenant.

reply to post by The Revenant


Meh...nothing to see here. Just more lefties telling each other what great people they are to each other. It might as well be a audience of one talking to himself in the mirror.

No real scientific research done here at all. Just opinion. One which I will ignore as I know better.

By the way. how much do you get paid an hour? I need a job and can post inflammatory stuff like this at half your wage....

I'll even do it for the left!

reply to post by The Revenant


Hey genius... You forgot a link to the article.

Which article? You didn't have a link. I don't find it surprising that the very conservative people are on average less intelligent... but the rest... I have my doubts.

edit: Here's the article:
www.psychologytoday.com...

Hey smartypants Liberal person . . . I'll bring on some flame if you bring on some link to the rest of the story, please and thanks.

It's just common sense
Open minded people tend to see the whole picture then close minded people who refuse to see the truth.

reply to post by The Revenant
The article is posted here at Psychology Today.

2nd line.

Ah, to divide and conquer.

The hidden hand works masterfully.

This thread PROVES Conservatives are more intelligent than Liberals. See what I did there? Nonsense......

Rev, you're one of the good ones...
But lately, I've been trying to get past this whole paradigm of right/left.
Because that is what they don't want. Real discourse and solutions.
Still, that said, it is fun to poke the Paulheads, they're so aloof
ETA: BE PREPARED FOR THE THREAD HIJACKING NOW THAT I MENTIONED HIS HOLINESS!

reply to post by The Revenant


My main question is what kind of conservative vs. liberal dichotomy are we talking? Political? Fiscal? Social?

My guess is going to social, since I don't know many social conservatives who are actually intelligent or many social liberals who are dumb.

This reminds me of the old SNL Stuart Smalley skit.

Looking into a mirror. "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me."



Maximum fail!

Originally posted by Heartisblack
It's just common sense

Open minded people tend to see the whole picture then close minded people who refuse to see the truth.

The problem is liberal thinking rarely considers the historically proven sociological reactivity to the short sighted ideologies and policies. Prior to a policy being implimented, every possible scenario should be simulated on how people will react 3, 5, 10, and 20 moves into the future. Like what the military, CIA and NSA do for their operations.

So should conservative thinkers. So should we all.

People controlled by fear, incapable of weighing evidence versus propaganda and willfully blind to the plight of others regardless of social status are definitely imbeciles. If you will not admit progress and want to conserve the corrupt status quo, you are either not intelligent and easily brainwashed or profiting in some way from this sad state of affairs. Which one are you?

reply to post by TDawgRex

reply to post by The Revenant


Regarding the constant need to appear superior and more intelligent I recommend reading this:

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

_______________________________________________________________________________________

From the article:

t is difficult to define a whole school of political ideology precisely, but one may reasonably define liberalism (as opposed to conservatism) in the contemporary United States as the genuine concern for the welfare of genetically unrelated others and the willingness to contribute larger proportions of private resources for the welfare of such others.

May I point you to checking which political/social group donates the most funds to philanthropy and charity?

Defined as such, liberalism is evolutionarily novel. Humans (like other species) are evolutionarily designed to be altruistic toward their genetic kin, their friends and allies, and members of their deme (a group of intermarrying individuals) or ethnic group.

May I also suggest you learn the difference between forced "altruism" and giving of ones own free will?

Liberals do control the media

Much of the mass-media caters to sensationalist mob-mentality and divisive propaganda. How working for the media as it presents itself in the last decades indicates intelligence is anyones guess.

reply to post by the owlbear


I couldn't agree more. The left right issue is kind of moot these days - that's an old-fashioned way of looking at things. Personally I think it's more about progressive vs regressive - except the nutties don't like being called 'regressives', makes them sound like neanderthals. LOL

Thanks everyone for letting me know about the link - I'm doing a million things at once at work...

The Rev.

reply to post by The Revenant


Well, perhaps. However, I would like to point out the obvious bias of Satoshi Kanazawa at least in this article. I'm not really sure about this mans credibility. He is a blogger who has had at least one piece removed rather quickly from Psychology Today. Link

I would also like to see how large a sampling they took for these measures of intelligence and the racial, socio-economic demographics. I will have to look into this study. Again, the blog entry is certainly biased, I do wonder about the study.

Your graph fails to include Libertarians, who are the smartest group of people by far, because they don't fall for the stupid left/right dichotomy that has engulfed the system and they know when to piss off and stay out of other people's business.

The Democratic Party of the USA under Obama (a huge liberal) is carrying on the wars started by the Bush administration, even starting new ones.

Nick Clegg, a hardcore liberal, has been backing up the conservative policies by his conservative friend Cameron since they came into power.

Yep, they're all quite liberal alright.

I think the idea of liberal or conservative is thrown out the window once anyone comes to power.