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Prejudiced, Conservative People Probably Stupid, Says Science

LeftishBritInPA

LeftishBritInPA

Member
Prejudiced, Conservative People Probably Stupid, Says Science
says-science

The study, conducted by Brock University in Ontario's Gordon Hodson and published in a recent issue of the Journal of Psychological Science, analyzed data assembled from two separate studies in order to examine the link between cognitive ability and prejudice.

The first study examined two groups of British adults, one born in 1958 and the other born in 1970. Both groups were assessed for intelligence at age 10 or 11, and then a followup was conducted when they were between the ages of 30 and 33. During the initial test, children were asked to complete tasks that tested their abilities to reason and remember. During the followup two decades later, researchers assessed the subjects' level of prejudice and degree of socially conservative views. "Social conservatism" was determined by asking subjects to respond to a series of questions like "Family life suffers if mom is working full time" or "I wouldn't mind working with other races." In this study, children with low scores on the first set of tests tended to grow up to exhibit prejudiced and socially conservative viewpoints on the second set of tests.
Click to expand...

Another Link from Google:

Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice - Yahoo! News
 
4consideration

4consideration

*
Premium Member
JacobEzra.

JacobEzra.

Dr. Greenthumb
I think some questions like, ""Family life suffers if mom is working full time" are unable to truly be evaluated without the background of a person. My mother worked fulltime and my father wasn't around and with 3 children, my mother struggled. So we children had to pull together. And it wasn't all bad, but it did make family life suffer a bit. Of course there were good aspects such as bring me and my family closer, wiitb a more group mentality.

But my point is, such a situation can't be known when a child answers. I'm sure if my youngest sister took that quiz she would've said yess, itt suffers as compared to a child with a bit more "well off" family.
 
Madhuri

Madhuri

RF Goddess
Staff member
Premium Member
Not sure that I agree about the conservatism, but I agree that prejudice is often linked with a lack of critical and rational thinking, and education.
 
Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Madhuri said:
Not sure that I agree about the conservatism, but I agree that prejudice is often linked with a lack of critical and rational thinking, and education.
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I believe that most of us have observed this in life as well. I know I have. For example, how many people realise there are 4 distinct groups of 'African American' or blacks in Canada? Not too many, I'm guessing. An uneducated person wouldn't know this, and yet it makes quite the difference in the way you can understand a person, or how you would deal with that person.
 
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Reverend Rick

Reverend Rick

Frubal Whore
Premium Member
Madhuri said:
Not sure that I agree about the conservatism, but I agree that prejudice is often linked with a lack of critical and rational thinking, and education.
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And the need to be better than someone else. Most thinking people try excelling at something to feel superior while less educated ignorant folks like to knock people down to be above them.

The need to be superior is the main problem. Low self worth is the biggest problem and is more environmental than anything.
 
Terrywoodenpic

Terrywoodenpic

Oldest Heretic
I suspect that the research complied with all the normal check and balances.
The two reported questions are certainly ones that might be thought representative in the UK.

It should be noted that those two age groups were also probably the worst effected by Leaded fuel.

The most conservative group in the UK is probably well represented by a small town business man.
They are notoriously thought to be, bigoted, lacking in imagination, pushy,dogmatic, non academic, and politically conservative. This is the Group that Margaret Thatcher came from and she became their God. This group would not be expected to do particularly well in intelligence tests.
 
LegionOnomaMoi

LegionOnomaMoi

Veteran Member
Premium Member
LeftishBritInPA said:
Prejudiced, Conservative People Probably Stupid, Says Science
says-science



Another Link from Google:

Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice - Yahoo! News
Click to expand...
I just read the research paper:

"Social conservatism.
In both the NCDS and the BCS, socially
conservative ideology was assessed in terms of respect for and
submission to authority (7 items in the NCDS and 10 items in
the BCS; e.g., “Give law breakers stiffer sentences” and
“Schools should teach children to obey authority”) and support
for conventional (i.e., unequal) sex roles (6 items in both
studies; e.g., “Family life suffers if mum is working fulltime”);
scale reliabilities ranged from .63 to .68 (Deary et al.,
2008; Schoon et al., 2010). These measures tap socially conservative
values, including desire for law and order, punitive
reactions toward wrongdoers, adherence to social conventions
or traditions, and social control. Without reference to racial
out-groups, these items reflect ideological orientations rooted
in resistance to change and a desire to maintain existing social
stratifications, making them ideal for our purposes.​

​
Racism. ​

​

Attitudes toward racial out-groups were assessed in
the NCDS and the BCS with the same five items (e.g., “I
wouldn’t mind working with people from other races” and “I
wouldn’t mind if a family of a different race moved next
door”; αs = .82; Deary et al., 2008; Schoon et al., 2010). Items
were reverse-scored; higher scores indicate a generalized
antipathy toward racial out-groups, rather than antipathy​
toward a specific racial group."

The cognitive tests were of 10 and 11 year old kids. The same individuals were tested for "social conservatism and racism" twenty years later. As for their second "research study" it was really a secondary analysis of a study someone else did in 2010. In that study:
"Undergraduates (172 women, 82 men) from an American university
completed a 21-item scale assessing prejudice against
homosexuals (Kite & Deaux, 1986), indicated the number of
homosexuals they knew personally, and completed a 20-item
right-wing-authoritarianism scale that tapped submission to
authority, conventionality, and aggression against deviants
(Altemeyer, 1996). Abstract reasoning was measured with 12
of the most cognitively challenging items from the Inventory​
of Piaget’s Developmental Tasks (Furth, 1970)."

I'll have to look at the original study data, but the path analysis used in this study to re-evaluate the original data of the other doesn't appear all that robust.

​
 
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Reverend Rick

Reverend Rick

Frubal Whore
Premium Member
Terrywoodenpic said:
I suspect that the research complied with all the normal check and balances.
The two reported questions are certainly ones that might be thought representative in the UK.

It should be noted that those two age groups were also probably the worst effected by Leaded fuel.

The most conservative group in the UK is probably well represented by a small town business man.
They are notoriously thought to be, bigoted, lacking in imagination, pushy,dogmatic, non academic, and politically conservative. This is the Group that Margaret Thatcher came from and she became their God. This group would not be expected to do particularly well in intelligence tests.
Click to expand...
If it was so easy for these neanderthals to make so much money, why don't the more intelligent species have more money?

You can score intelligence on a test, but a bank account speaks volumes about a person's ability with the exception of inheritance.
 
4consideration

4consideration

*
Premium Member
For me the biggest issue here is using supposedly intelligent processes to establish a basis for viewing an entire group of people as inferior.


What I see here is ignorance cloaking itself as intelligence.


That has been done so much in human history that I can't see how it isn't obvious to otherwise intelligent people. It has been done to all types of minorities: minorities based on race, nationality, gender, religious afiliation, sexual orientation, etc.


We have had so many movements where people have died in the their attempt to point out this basic error. We revere those people and establish holidays in their honor -- then get back to work doing the very same thing they pointed out for us as ignorant and un-loving?
 
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Terrywoodenpic

Terrywoodenpic

Oldest Heretic
Reverend Rick said:
If it was so easy for these neanderthals to make so much money, why don't the more intelligent species have more money?

You can score intelligence on a test, but a bank account speaks volumes about a person's ability with the exception of inheritance.
Click to expand...

Since when was making money a measure of intelligence.
Few of the more intelligent people or polymaths are rich or even want to be.
The rich seem to be interest in little else than money.

Money seems to be like testosterone for the less well mentally endowed.
 
Reverend Rick

Reverend Rick

Frubal Whore
Premium Member
Terrywoodenpic said:
Since when was making money a measure of intelligence.
Few of the more intelligent people or polymaths are rich or even want to be.
The rich seem to be interest in little else than money.

Money seems to be like testosterone for the less well mentally endowed.
Click to expand...

How else do you explain class envy?

Seriously, this attitude of money means nothing is elitist. They could make the money to prove a point and then give it away to charity.

If your arguement held water, we would not need a welfare state.
 
Terrywoodenpic

Terrywoodenpic

Oldest Heretic
Reverend Rick said:
How else do you explain class envy?

Seriously, this attitude of money means nothing is elitist. They could make the money to prove a point and then give it away to charity.

If your arguement held water, we would not need a welfare state.
Click to expand...

We need money to live
we don't live to make money.

I know nothing about class envy... it is not in the forefront as a subject in the UK.
Some of the highest class people are not even rich.
Class and money are not related here.
Beckham is rich but totally lacks class.
Most of our Richest people are seen as middle class at best.
 
Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Terrywoodenpic said:
We need money to live
we don't live to make money.

I know nothing about class envy... it is not in the forefront as a subject in the UK.
Some of the highest class people are not even rich.
Class and money are not related here.
Beckham is rich but totally lacks class.
Most of our Richest people are seen as middle class at best.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it exists, but I don't see it either. People for the most part seem content to be who they are. Some very rich people are about the lowest class citizens you can find anywhere. :)
 
Reverend Rick

Reverend Rick

Frubal Whore
Premium Member
Saying science believes that conservative people are also prejudice is the most ignorant thing I have ever heard.

I guess conversely all liberals are not prejudice right?
 
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