Politics and IQ: Are Liberals Smarter than Conservatives?

I would say "yes, we are, by a kilometre" (not mile, because we also don't use those archaic units), but apparently it's far more "nuanced". Even so, according to this article "previous research had consistently shown that people with higher intelligence tend to be more socially liberal and less religious, which would suggest Democrats might have a cognitive edge" (they say "Democrats" because it's from the U.S., so just substitute whatever equivalent party you might have in your country).

https://www.psypost.org/the-politics-of-iq-are-liberals-smarter-than-conservatives/

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Convivial · 26-30, F

There's a quote from Churchill..
The best argument against democracy is 5 minutes spent with the average voter..

Mindfulness

It doesn't matter who's the more intelligent, it matters who there's more of.

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Mindfulness

@Pambie Maybe if that was a requirement in who stands for office you wouldn't need one for voters.

Pambie · 26-30, F

@Mindfulness Bernie Sanders would be the U.S. president then. I could live with that. ☺

Mindfulness

@Pambie Anyone would be better than the incumbent.

AdmiralPrune · 46-50, M

The joys of democracy.

Everyone has a say no matter how stupid, unqualified or biased they are.

Pambie · 26-30, F

@AdmiralPrune That's the biggest problem with it.

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, MVIP

People with a higher IQ can work out that helping someone improve themselves and their life adds more value to them for you and in the end costs you less than having to defend and protect yourself from them..😷

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

i struggle to understand how the political party of dropouts, addicts, and convicts is smarter than everyone else

Waveney · M

@SusanInFlorida They're not. Democrats are smarter than Republicans.

Rolexeo · 31-35, M

That doesn't prove a whole lot. Most conservatives are pretty socially liberal and while they tend more towards religion plenty aren't, a lot of people on the left are religious as well. Authoritarians are consistently shown to score lower on IQ tests, they can fall on either side of the political spectrum.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

If we apply that question to British politics we'd need establish if with capital or lower-case initial letters, because there are the Liberal-Democrat Party and the Conservative Party.

Whether the members and supporters of any one party are cleverer than any other.. I think this largely meaningless. There are bright and less bright, well-educated and poorly-educated, people in all walks of political life.

Extreme groups, of both Right and Left, tend to attract people who may or may not be particularly intelligent but have poor analytical and critical skills.

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