THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Ichirou on February 27, 2010, 04:16:58 AM
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Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity linked to IQ
(CNN) -- Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.
Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.
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. But they show how certain patterns of identifying with particular ideologies develop, and how some people's behaviors come to be.
The reasoning is that sexual exclusivity in men, liberalism and atheism all go against what would be expected given humans' evolutionary past. In other words, none of these traits would have benefited our early human ancestors, but higher intelligence may be associated with them.
"The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward," said George Washington University leadership professor James Bailey, who was not involved in the study. "It also makes perfect sense that more intelligent people -- people with, sort of, more intellectual firepower -- are likely to be the ones to do that."
Bailey also said that these preferences may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ. In fact, aligning oneself with "unconventional" philosophies such as liberalism or atheism may be "ways to communicate to everyone that you're pretty smart," he said.
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.
Kanazawa did not find that higher or lower intelligence predicted sexual exclusivity in women. This makes sense, because having one partner has always been advantageous to women, even thousands of years ago, meaning exclusivity is not a "new" preference.
For men, on the other hand, sexual exclusivity goes against the grain evolutionarily. With a goal of spreading genes, early men had multiple mates. Since women had to spend nine months being pregnant, and additional years caring for very young children, it made sense for them to want a steady mate to provide them resources.
Religion, the current theory goes, did not help people survive or reproduce necessarily, but goes along the lines of helping people to be paranoid, Kanazawa said. Assuming that, for example, a noise in the distance is a signal of a threat helped early humans to prepare in case of danger.
"It helps life to be paranoid, and because humans are paranoid, they become more religious, and they see the hands of God everywhere," Kanazawa said.
Participants who said they were atheists had an average IQ of 103 in adolescence, while adults who said they were religious averaged 97, the study found. Atheism "allows someone to move forward and speculate on life without any concern for the dogmatic structure of a religion," Bailey said.
"Historically, anything that's new and different can be seen as a threat in terms of the religious beliefs; almost all religious systems are about permanence," he noted.
The study takes the American view of liberal vs. conservative. It defines "liberal" in terms of concern for genetically nonrelated people and support for private resources that help those people. It does not look at other factors that play into American political beliefs, such as abortion, gun control and gay rights.
"Liberals are more likely to be concerned about total strangers; conservatives are likely to be concerned with people they associate with," he said.
Given that human ancestors had a keen interest in the survival of their offspring and nearest kin, the conservative approach -- looking out for the people around you first -- fits with the evolutionary picture more than liberalism, Kanazawa said. "It's unnatural for humans to be concerned about total strangers." he said.
The study found that young adults who said they were "very conservative" had an average adolescent IQ of 95, whereas those who said they were "very liberal" averaged 106.
It also makes sense that "conservatism" as a worldview of keeping things stable would be a safer approach than venturing toward the unfamiliar, Bailey said.
Neither Bailey nor Kanazawa identify themselves as liberal; Bailey is conservative and Kanazawa is "a strong libertarian."
Vegetarianism, while not strongly associated with IQ in this study, has been shown to be related to intelligence in previous research, Kanazawa said. This also fits into Bailey's idea that unconventional preferences appeal to people with higher intelligence, and can also be a means of showing superiority.
None of this means that the human species is evolving toward a future where these traits are the default, Kanazawa said.
"More intelligent people don't have more children, so moving away from the trajectory is not going to happen," he said.
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:usacry
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Too bad the conserva-religiotards are the ones breeding. BRING ON THE BRAWNDO.
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It's got electrolytes!
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intelligence quotient tests are bullshit, they only show how well you know what you should know at a certain age, not, you know, INTELLIGENCE
im a nothing (dont care enough to label myself atheist or agnostic) and hate conservatives and liberals and have a higher iq than both examples
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intelligence quotient tests are bullshit, they only show how well you know what you should know at a certain age, not, you know, INTELLIGENCE
im a nothing (dont care enough to label myself atheist or agnostic) and hate conservatives and liberals and have a higher iq than both examples
I thought those tests just tested cognitive (left-brain) functionality with puzzles and shit? Which, as I may have cross-posted, is why people with high IQ's go to science-related fields.
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intelligence quotient tests are bullshit, they only show how well you know what you should know at a certain age, not, you know, INTELLIGENCE
im a nothing (dont care enough to label myself atheist or agnostic) and hate conservatives and liberals and have a higher iq than both examples
But is your IQ as high as Green Shinobi's? DOUBT IT. :greenshinobi
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I have an IQ of 180.
/me swirls whatever is in his brandy snifter and reads New Yorker comics.
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I always score 125-135.
IQ, not girls.
smh
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We're talking about IQ, not fe-
Fuck you, Tieno.
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Let's see how smart you feel when you're burning in the fires of Hades. :smug
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tieno told me he once kissed a girl and he liked it
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Wait, he told me the same thing! :o
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Participants who said they were atheists had an average IQ of 103 in adolescence, while adults who said they were religious averaged 97, the study found. Atheism "allows someone to move forward and speculate on life without any concern for the dogmatic structure of a religion," Bailey said.
So both groups are in the average range. Wow, what a huge difference.
intelligence quotient tests are bullshit, they only show how well you know what you should know at a certain age, not, you know, INTELLIGENCE
im a nothing (dont care enough to label myself atheist or agnostic) and hate conservatives and liberals and have a higher iq than both examples
I thought those tests just tested cognitive (left-brain) functionality with puzzles and shit? Which, as I may have cross-posted, is why people with high IQ's go to science-related fields.
Nope, IQ tests look at numerous processes such as Verbal Reasoning, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, Processing Speed, Visual Spatial, Fluid Reasoning, Knowledge, etc. It's more than just science-based "puzzles and shit."
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CHEERS: Trolling conservatives, who are gonna spend the next week angrily explaining why this isn't so.
JEERS: Sloppy evo-psych wannabe game theory explanations of human society. "You see, on the veldt it was advantageous..."
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Wait, what this study is really saying is that intelligent women are sluts. :(
They don't like being called sluts, they prefer "open-minded."
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Wait, what this study is really saying is that intelligent women are sluts. :(
I fail to see the problem here.
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The wildest chick I ever met was a valedictorian headed to Stanford. She was a dirty, dirty slut. And made no bones about it.
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:o so all i need is a motorcycle?
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Liberal Elite indeed :smug
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Smart and depressed or dumb and happy? What a double-edged sword to choose...
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I choose false dichotomy!
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Atheism. :rock
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not caring enough to take a stance on religion :rock
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Now when I am talking to my redneck tea partier cousin, I will be smug with the knowledge that he is a DUMB. All thanks to SCIENCE. :rock
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pseudo science :rock
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Pretty sure that evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa of the the London School of Economics and Political Science isn't a pseudo-scientist. :smug
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L oh L, if anything you just proved my point, psychologists have this fascination with statistics and raw numbers and useless data collection, this is a recipe for irrelevancy and completely missing the fucking point, especially for a scientist that studies groups of people, i definitely side with anthropologists, who oppose psychologists and sociologists on basic shit like this and just their entire way of approach
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(http://i49.tinypic.com/auvf9.png)
But I don't think it's too accurate to say psychology is based on biology.
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yeah but mathematicians and engineers and etcetera have no souls
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:(
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psychologists have this fascination with statistics and raw numbers and useless data collection
What? I'm pretty sure psychologists lean towards qualitative stuff, as opposed to say economists.
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drew is just being a contrarian.
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And since intelligent men are sexually exclusive, this just confirms that all the best women (flannel girl and their like in law school) are having sex with Neanderthals on motorcycles. :(
I'm not sexually exclusive; I'm sexually excluded!
He doesn't actually own a motorcycle!
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He didn't say the guy owns a motorcycle. He just said that's what they're having sex on top of.
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:lol
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That sounds a bit physically awkward, actually.
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Hot Girl: LET'S DO IT ON THIS BIKE!
recursive: I don't think that's safe. Let me see whether the bike could support our mass.
Hot Girl: LET'S DO IT ON THIS BIKE!
DudeBro: While stationary or while riding?
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DudeBro wouldn't even ask that question, he'd just start fucking her.
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DudeBro wouldn't even ask that question, he'd just start fucking her.
God damn dudebros :maf
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If it was Dudebro, she wouldn't even have had to make the suggestion. Dudebro would just ride his hog right through the front door, pick the girl up off the couch, and start banging her right there in front of her parents. And you know what? They wouldn't even mind, because, hey, it's Dudebro we're talking about here, not some limp-wristed nerd.
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When you get down to it, women don't want you talking, they just want to get fucked. 8)
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I think it's expressed more eloquently here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klxhFDCqLrs