QuoteRight-wingers tend to be less intelligent than left-wingers, and people with low childhood intelligence tend to grow up to have racist and anti-gay views, says a controversial new study.
Conservative politics work almost as a 'gateway' into prejudice against others, say the Canadian academics.
The paper analysed large UK studies which compared childhood intelligence with political views in adulthood across more than 15,000 people.
The authors claim that people with low intelligence gravitate towards right-wing views because they make them feel safe.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron
Labour party leader Ed Miliband
The survey, which compared childhood intelligence with political views, is bad news for David Cameron, the Conservative Party Prime Minister but should give a lift to Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband, pictured in Question Time
Crucially, people's educational level is not what determines whether they are racist or not - it's innate intelligence, according to the academics.
Social status also appears to play no part.
The study, published in Psychological Science, claims that right-wing ideology forms a 'pathway' for people with low reasoning ability to become prejudiced against groups such as other races and gay people.
Left-wingers tend to be more open-minded says the survey - Democrats voted in first black U.S. president Barack Obama. But right-wing ideology forms a pathway for prejudice - Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney, pictured right, was glitter-bombed yesterday by gay-rights activists because of his views
'Cognitive abilities are critical in forming impressions of other people and in being open minded,' say the researchers.
'Individuals with lower cognitive abilities may gravitate towards more socially conservative right-wing ideologies that maintain the status quo.
'It provides a sense of order.'
The study, by academics at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, used information from two UK studies from 1958 and 1970 , where several thousand children were assessed for intelligence at age 10 and 11, and then asked political questions aged 33.
The 1958 National Child Development involved 4,267 men and 4,537 women born in 1958.
'Individuals with lower abilities may gravitate towards right-wing ideologies that maintain the status quo.
It provides a sense of order,' say the academics
The British Cohort Study involved 3,412 men and 3,658 women born in 1970.
It's the first time the data from these studies has been used in this way.
In adulthood, the children were asked whether they agreed with statements such as, '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.'
They were also asked whether they agreed with statements about typically right-wing and socially conservative politics such as, 'Give law breakers stiffer sentences,' and 'Schools should teach children to obey authority.'
The researchers also compared their results against a 1986 American study which included tests of cognitive ability and questions assessing prejudice against homosexuals.
The authors claim that there is a strong correlation between low intelligence both as a child and an adult, and right-wing politics.
The authors also claim that conservative politics is part of a complex relationship that leads people to become prejudices.
'Conservative ideology represents a critical pathway through which childhood intelligence predicts racism in adulthood,' says the paper.
'In psychological terms, the relation between intelligence and prejudice may stem from the propensity of individuals with lower cognitive ability to endorse more right wing conservative ideologies because such ideologies offer a psychological sense of stability and order.'
'Clearly, however, all socially conservative people are not prejudiced, and all prejudiced persons are not conservative.'
Bizzare that this comes from the daily fail of all places.
Though err...:contract:?
Amusing. THough absolutely troll material.
Quote from: Tyr on February 09, 2012, 02:56:34 AM
Amusing. THough absolutely troll material.
Especially when it's been posted before. :-)
Thatcher haters < right wingers?
Quote from: Ed Anger on February 09, 2012, 10:27:22 AM
Thatcher haters < right wingers?
If this forum is any indication Thatcher haters are a pretty absurd bunch.
Quote from: Razgovory on February 09, 2012, 12:00:15 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on February 09, 2012, 10:27:22 AM
Thatcher haters < right wingers?
If this forum is any indication Thatcher haters are a pretty absurd bunch.
I'd counsel against taking this forum as an indication of anything.
I don't have the cash to charter a plane to see what the Brits in Britian say.
"Right-wingers tend to be more open-minded says the survey - Tories voted in first female UK prime minister, Mrs Thatcher." :cool:
Maggie :wub:
She wasn't my Prime Minister. So I don't really know much either way. Just know she's hated by a lot of Brits and is sometimes blamed for the Balkans war (which strikes me as utterly bizarre). If the Brits hate something, there must be something going for it. But then, I sympathize with a lot of Tory stuff.
Quote from: crazy canuck on February 09, 2012, 06:22:52 PM
Maggie :wub:
I liked it when she pissed in every British coal miner's tea.
Quote from: Razgovory on February 09, 2012, 06:26:35 PM
she's hated by a lot of Brits and is sometimes blamed for the Balkans war (which strikes me as utterly bizarre).
:hmm:
Where was the other thread?
I just heard about this on TV and couldn't find a thread for it.
http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,6935.0.html
One good thing about Maggie, she inspired one of my favourite, though highly under rated, Pink Floyd albums, 1983's The Final Cut.
Quote from: Habbaku on February 09, 2012, 06:37:30 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on February 09, 2012, 06:26:35 PM
she's hated by a lot of Brits and is sometimes blamed for the Balkans war (which strikes me as utterly bizarre).
:hmm:
Well it makes about as much sense as when I meant to post :lol:
Quote from: Josephus on February 09, 2012, 07:59:28 PM
one of my favourite, though highly under rated, Pink Floyd albums, 1983's The Final Cut.
:yes:
Quote from: Razgovory on February 09, 2012, 06:26:35 PM
She wasn't my Prime Minister. So I don't really know much either way. Just know she's hated by a lot of Brits and is sometimes blamed for the Balkans war (which strikes me as utterly bizarre). If the Brits hate something, there must be something going for it. But then, I sympathize with a lot of Tory stuff.
Never heard of that one. She wasn't even PM then.