AndrewB Posted March 6, 2010 Actually I think this is best described as "not news." http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/index.html?hpt=P1 0 Share this post Link to post
Csonicgo Posted March 6, 2010 Liberal atheist monogamists with balls have highest IQs ftfy The IQ differences, while statistically significant, are not stunning -- on the order of 6 to 11 points -- and the data should not be used to stereotype or make assumptions about people, experts say. People were doing that before the study. 0 Share this post Link to post
Bloodshedder Posted March 6, 2010 Controversy Grows over Study Claiming Liberals and Atheists Are Smarter The author of a study claiming liberals and atheists are smarter than conservatives and believers is called 'great idiot of social science' by prominent evolutionary biologist. 0 Share this post Link to post
Stygian Posted March 6, 2010 Is it any coincidence that CNN is hosting these statistics? 0 Share this post Link to post
PRIMEVAL Posted March 7, 2010 I've yet to see any signs of intelligence from liberals, atheists, conservatives, or theists. 0 Share this post Link to post
Technician Posted March 7, 2010 PRIMEVAL said:I've yet to see any signs of intelligence from liberals, atheists, conservatives, or theists. I don't support the consensus but... fail. 0 Share this post Link to post
Nomad Posted March 7, 2010 PRIMEVAL said:I've yet to see any signs of intelligence from liberals, atheists, conservatives, or theists. I expected REoL to say it first, at least, so good job being proactive! 0 Share this post Link to post
destx Posted March 7, 2010 Whoever did this study must be a conservative theist slut because they is dumb as hell. 0 Share this post Link to post
[compactSprue] Posted March 7, 2010 I read the headline and the first thing that came to my head was "bullshit". Maybe i'll release some overfunded study which proves that republican polygamists are more intelligent than liberal monogamists, but it wouldn't matter anyway because your intelligence level isn't dictated by your political or social beliefs. then again, that doesn't matter either because i'm smarter than everyone. 0 Share this post Link to post
PRIMEVAL Posted March 7, 2010 Nomad said:http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u90/chestera/unsuccessful-troll.jpg I expected REoL to say it first, at least, so good job being proactive! I was gonna leave it at liberals and atheists, but I figured some twit would feel offended. But thank you, I try. 0 Share this post Link to post
Shaviro Posted March 7, 2010 Of course liberal atheists have higher IQ. That just happens to be the group I'm "in". I'll support any theory that supports me! 0 Share this post Link to post
printz Posted March 7, 2010 I don't know about the monogamist/polygamist part, but it's quite logical that liberal atheists are smarter. Both conservatives and God-worshippers are people who can't think for themselves, so they need a tradition and some group or mass of people to meld in and be alike. 0 Share this post Link to post
Jodwin Posted March 7, 2010 printz said:I don't know about the monogamist/polygamist part, but it's quite logical that liberal atheists are smarter. Both conservatives and God-worshippers are people who can't think for themselves, so they need a tradition and some group or mass of people to meld in and be alike. Agreed, it can be safely assumed that, on average, liberal atheists are more highly educated than conservative theists are, and similarly it can be safely assumed that on average people with higher education have higher IQ than people with lower education do. That doesn't mean that there can't be exceptions on both sides (dumb liberals and intelligent conservatives), but it's a fairly safe assumption regarding the averages. 0 Share this post Link to post
Mr. T Posted March 7, 2010 PRIMEVAL said:I've yet to see any signs of intelligence from liberals, atheists, conservatives, or theists. So fucking true!!! 0 Share this post Link to post
[compactSprue] Posted March 7, 2010 I just noticed this but, look at the sample that the study worked from "The study looked at a large sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which began with adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The participants were interviewed as 18- to 28-year-olds from 2001 to 2002. The study also looked at the General Social Survey, another cross-national data collection source." having only a 10 year age group sample when voting age ranks from 18 to (infinity) is not representative. If this was a legitimate study, they would have IQ Tested people across most age groups. Of course, they didn't do that. they only interviewed the most liberal age group in the united states for their results! Just more of CNN's bullshit 0 Share this post Link to post
myk Posted March 7, 2010 Jodwin said: Agreed, it can be safely assumed that, on average, liberal atheists are more highly educated than conservative theists are, and similarly it can be safely assumed that on average people with higher education have higher IQ than people with lower education do. The idiocy is that it's supposing that this is due to genetics. Academics stimulate their minds a lot and thus tend to be open minded or liberal in a few or many ways. People who are too poor or conflicted to access higher education and might feel inclined to rely on strict religion or simplistic or rigid views on life might have good genetic potential that simply goes to waste, in the intellectual sense, in a harsh environment. 0 Share this post Link to post
Creaphis Posted March 7, 2010 Jesus Christ, people. It's a fucking correlation. It's not a rule; there will obviously be countless exceptions. The fact that large sample sizes were necessary to demonstrate that this correlation is statistically significant is a clear sign that there are nearly as many exceptions to this "rule" as there are confirmations. This also is not in any way a "cause," in either direction. The researcher's explanations for the relationship between IQ and liberalism/atheism/monogamy are guesses at best. Finally, your IQ does not in any way reflect your objective worth as a human being. This should not be used as a way to bolster your self-worth and it certainly isn't something to get all huffy about. [compactSprue] said: I just noticed this but, look at the sample that the study worked from "The study looked at a large sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which began with adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The participants were interviewed as 18- to 28-year-olds from 2001 to 2002. The study also looked at the General Social Survey, another cross-national data collection source." having only a 10 year age group sample when voting age ranks from 18 to (infinity) is not representative. If this was a legitimate study, they would have IQ Tested people across most age groups. Of course, they didn't do that. they only interviewed the most liberal age group in the united states for their results! Just more of CNN's bullshit You don't understand statistics. Choosing a sample that is demographically skewed won't affect the results of a correlation, aside from lowering its statistical significance by only a touch. There are still more than enough data points that range from high to low IQ and that range from conservatism to liberalism, theism to atheism, etc., to show that a relationship exists between these things in this age group (and then, probably, in other age groups as well). If this was a demographic survey, which extrapolated its results to the entire population (eg. "80% of all students are liberal, therefore 80% of all people are liberal!") this would be in gross error, but that isn't what was done here. Now, if the study actually had included more data points from older individuals, the results would actually be much more "damning" for conservatives and theists, because that introduces another confound. There is a generational effect on IQ: your IQ is strongly influenced, not so much by age, but by when you were born, and essentially, the later you were born, the higher your IQ is likely to be, due to our increasingly information-rich environment. As older demographics are also more conservative proportionally, including their data in this study would add many more conservative, theist, and inordinately-low-IQ data points in support of this correlation. 0 Share this post Link to post
deathbringer Posted March 7, 2010 Liberal Doh! Atheist Woohoo! Monogamist Doh! Couldn't even get best of three. 0 Share this post Link to post
phi108 Posted March 8, 2010 Creaphis said:...there are nearly as many exceptions to this "rule" as there are confirmations. ...Finally, your IQ does not in any way reflect your objective worth as a human being. This should not be used as a way to bolster your self-worth and it certainly isn't something to get all huffy about. Quoted for agreement. There is a large variation, and a correlation appears because of the large sample size. I admit, being liberal and maybe agnostic, this study would be good news for me, but I basically really dislike the attitudes that it is bringing out. Though for my own view-spouting: Of course more intelligent people will be open-minded or liberal with their opinions, but IDK about the atheism. A truly intelligent person would know that they will NEVER know everything about the uni/multiverse. But a more ignorant person may be more likely to subscribe to an entire set of religious beliefs without thinking through them. Of course, a liberal religious person may pretend to be a believer, while they actually just pick and choose morals from a variety of faiths that they would like to follow, never admitting that they completely beleive or are completely atheist. But now I think I'm just writing way too much..... 0 Share this post Link to post
AndrewB Posted March 8, 2010 phi108 said:but IDK about the atheism. A truly intelligent person would know that they will NEVER know everything about the uni/multiverse.You can be atheist and also believe that you will never know everything. Where's the contradiction? 0 Share this post Link to post
Maes Posted March 8, 2010 TBQH, when I first read the thread's title I understood it as "highest IOs", as in, higher I/O signal levels. Professional deformation, I suppose.... 0 Share this post Link to post
Inhuman Strain Posted March 8, 2010 I say this is just another skewed example of biased partisan whackjobs indulging in junk science to elevate themselves, and I'm an atheist. The same has been done for conservatives and theists as well. I'm still waiting for the scientific evidence confirming my suspicion that academic success is a bad way to measure/compare someone's intelligence. I've always suspected that the only thing inherently determined by someone's big-ass GPA is their dedication to the system...But of course, what scientific proof is there for that? 0 Share this post Link to post
Texas Libra Posted March 9, 2010 [compactSprue] said: ...your intelligence level isn't dictated by your political or social beliefs. You're right, it's ass backwards. More like your political or social beliefs are dictated by your intelligence. Got it. 0 Share this post Link to post
Maes Posted March 9, 2010 Texas Libra said:You're right, it's ass backwards. More like your political or social beliefs are dictated by your intelligence. Got it. Then again, being an intelligent White Power skinhead seems to be pretty damn hard. 0 Share this post Link to post
Ralphis Posted March 9, 2010 Poor stupid white people are republicans Poor stupid black people are democrats 0 Share this post Link to post
myk Posted March 14, 2010 Creaphis said: This also is not in any way a "cause," in either direction. The researcher's explanations for the relationship between IQ and liberalism/atheism/monogamy are guesses at best. They seem more like a sign of the the focus or bias of the researcher than guesses. Especially in the media, these "guesses" are what stands out most, since a synthesis carries conclusions better than the elements of an analysis, and especially when the statistical data seems unremarkable or expected and the supposed guesses are more controversial. 0 Share this post Link to post
E.J. Posted March 19, 2010 What this data demonstrates are correlational patterns, and "Correlation does not imply causation". What that means is that the presence of 'X', or 'Y', can help predict the presence of the other. It does not determine whether 'X' caused 'Y', 'Y' caused 'X', or extraneous other variables(s) (ie - 'Z') caused both 'X & Y'. Higher IQ scores are positively +(0.??) correlated with educational/academic success, and higher education is positively correlated with atheism. My personal belief is: the higher the level of education, especially in the natural sciences, the higher the level of people who reject their previously held religous dogmas. 0 Share this post Link to post