Scientific Proof That Liberals Are Smarter
| Mon Sep. 10, 2007 11:33 PM PDT
Ok, so not proof exactly, but man we are really smart. And I'm not talking about knowing geography or spelling or history. I'm talking about the alphabet. We know it, while conservatives are apparently blinded by ideology. In certain situations their rigid brains cannot distinguish among different letters of the alphabet, a major study has found, and this explains why they can't tolerate ambiguity and conflict as well as liberals.
"Political orientation is related to how the brain processes information," reports the UCLA and NYU study, as detailed in the LA Times:
Participants were college students whose politics ranged from "very liberal" to "very conservative. They were instructed to tap a keyboard when an M appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a W.
M appeared four times more frequently than W, conditioning participants to press a key in knee-jerk fashion whenever they saw a letter.
And conservatives were by far the worst knee-jerkers, routinely mistaking a W for an M, or vice versa when the weightings were changed. This has happened before. Mole hill or WMD? Morass or winnable? Melting ice or wacko science? In all seriousness, Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Institute of Personality and Social Research, told the Times that the results could explain why Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq War and why "liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas."
This study is by no means the first to suggest that one political persuasion or another is more fit for duty in the battle of ideas. A few years ago I wrote about a University of Texas study that found residents of Houston suffer from a quasi-clinical condition known as "war fever." But this newest study at least takes the political debate back to the ABCs. Now if only conservatives could go back to kindergarten. . .
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Comments
There have also been many studies that prove men are smarter than woeman and Whites are smarter than Blacks and Mexicans are smarter than Blacks and east and west Asians are smarter than Blacks. This is why we have affirmative action. Based on merit alone, very few Blacks and Mexicans would get the good jobs. Woeman, being so emotional, would not get responsible jobs. I think you get the picture. This study on Liberal vs. Conservative is bias since it was done by Liberal University types.
I often find myself frustrated when frequent posters such as Mr. Harkins undermine the credibility of good, honest, left-wingers with silly posts like this. Obviously Mr. Harkins is going to get kudos of some sort or another from the liberal camp (who doesn't like a little ego stroking?). However, the deadly combination of arrogance and logical fallacy that he presents here merely underscore negative stereotype of liberals as holier-than-thou windbags who are "willing to say anything."
I took a brief look at the study abstract, although it is not available yet on search engines (e.g. psycinfo) to which I have access. Based on the abstract and Harkins brief description, it is not feasible to drawn inferences about abstruse -and unmeasurable- hypothetical constructs like "cognitive flexibility." All the study appears to demonstrate is that individuals who self-identified as conservative responded in a slightly different way to a simple, operant conditioning scenario. To draw any inferences (e.g. conservatives=unintelligent) is just silly. I also agree wholeheartedly with Bubba Jones' analysis above alluding to the Eugenics movement of yore. While I am no fan of discounting research based solely on the socio-demographics of its authors, it is clear that the study in question and Mr. Harkin's "analysis" are unabashedly biased and flawed in their analyses. Nowhere does Harkins cite support for his statement that conservatives are inherently "blinded by ideology" or that "their rigid brains cannot distinguish among different letters of the alphabet." Mr. Harkins, please cease and desist from undermining left-wing viewpoints with baseless drivel like this. Fallacious, disrespectful and needlessly arrogant commentary like this does nothing more than confirm the stereotype of left-wingers such as ourselves as effete, latte-drinking putzes (sp?) who think they're better than middle-America.
-Matthew T. Jameson
Talk about a knee-jerk reaction. You've just made a pretty strong assumption about Mr. Harkin(son)'s intentions in writing this post. It seems to me that any incredibly subtle inference he drew that this study shows liberals are smarter than conservatives was tongue-in-cheek.
Wouldn't you think not mentioning this study to avoid potentially undermining the entire liberal movement is a bit overboard? I for one enjoyed reading about this study. It's just another tidbit of knowledge that doesn't prove anything but gives some clues about how are brains work. Thanks for posting Josh.
Can we bias any study to show a tendency for desired results, if humour, or perhaps grant money, is the goal? And we do love controversy. However, we love it less than effectiveness. Harkin's study , therefore can be said to be " funnier than just hearing that, "God did it", and, less effective than serious, unbiased science.
The same study said that Conservatives process information faster than liberals. Liberals are also more impulsive since they try new things, they take chances more, like in their driving and sex, and pay the consequences of their bad judgment. But on all the studies, Jews show up as being the smartest people. There are plenty of books on that.
I wonder if the designers of this study forced all participants into either/or, conservative/liberal categories, regardless of whether they truly belonged in either of those bi-polar groupings?
Where, for instance, would they have put a person who believes in repeal of federal drug laws, reducing the size and scope of the military, repealing laws against prostitution and any consensual practices among adults, drastically reducing taxation, spending and regulation, supports both the first and second amendments, and opposes the Iraq war?
The political landscape is NOT two dimensional, and neither is the human brain.
Assuming the science behind the study and the conclusions drawn are accurate, the main question left unanswered is, "Who's working on a cure?" Given that Big Phamaceutical is in the pocket of the Right, this should give the Left cause for major concern.
WHITES ARE SMARTER THAN
Submitted by World Peace (not verified) on Mon Feb. 16, 2009 4:30 PM PST.
WHITES ARE SMARTER THAN BLACKS AND MEXICANS.... WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT STUPID RACIST TALKING ABOUT. KILL YOURSELF BEFORE SOMEBODY ELSE DOES YOU FUCKING RACIST CUNT. HUMANS ARE EQUALLY SMART AND STUPID
