Before you go flashing that research around Mollydukes you should check out this critique of your first paper. http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?s=bright+minds.

You should also ask yourself if the correlation holds true why it is that the least intelligent electorates tend to vote left-wing in Australia. (Not sure if the correlation holds true in the USA, but suspect it does in the UK.)

The fascist left are on the move trying to pathologise any group that disagrees with them. Not only has history shown that this sort of outgroup prejudice is wrong (it is frighteningly close to phrenology which was used to justify racism), but it must be resisted by anyone with a respect for the human race and civilised discourse.

The two papers you cite are part of that movement.

Sure Graham as with most social psychological research, the results of the questionaire study are open to criticism and alternative conjecture, but the Briggs article does not present any real argument as to why the study is wrong in it's conclusions

Consistent with confirmation bias, it is my experience that right wing people are racist, it's how they and I know that they are right wing. The study provides a reasonable scenario for the mechanisms that would lead some people into the stupid types of thinking that are so prevalent on this forum.

Do you worry about the many sad people here who are so fearful of women, homosexuals, athiests, black and yellow people - oh and probably purple and green ones also - fearful in fact of anyone and anything different from them or what they know and understand? And the fear renders them angry and abusive.

But do I detect the beginnings of a trend toward denial of the psychological science? You have perfected the art of deluding yourselves and your 'stupid' followers that climate scientists are all lefties with a point to prove, and now you are out to get the psychological researchers. Pffft

Graham, did you notice that the right is now making up another bogeyman to be scared about? The fascist left! For goodness sake, don't get sucked into conspiracy theories.

Mollydukes, the Briggs article is pretty comprehensive. The psychologists work is not transparent - they don't have a definition of "conservative" or "liberal" that is apparent in the paper. I've read it. Perhaps you haven't.

Because of the size of the sample the p values tell you nothing useful either. So it's poor research. And it doesn't cross-check with reality.

If intelligence is such a good predictor of ideological preference how is it that the left-wing parties in the English speaking world rely on people with lower IQs for the bulk of their vote as inferred from the demographics from which they draw this vote.

I would never belittle someone's intelligence because they have a different political point of view from me. Apparently in the social sciences that is OK.

As for fear, if you want to see fear, have a look at all the paranoid left fantasies about various conspiracies to control the world by class or capital, the latest manifestation of which is a tsunami of op-eds condemning Gina Rinehart because she bought some shares in a media company, which has been preceded by a tsunami of concern that Rupert Murdoch tells us all what to think, even though most of us don't get our news from him.

>> If intelligence is such a good predictor of ideological preference how is it that the left-wing parties in the English speaking world rely on people with lower IQs for the bulk of their vote as inferred from the demographics from which they draw this vote. <<

An "intelligent" society is measured by how well they look after the most disadvantaged in that society.

As far as the "paranoid left" goes, I would have said the 'Lord Christopher Monckton' and his followers were somewhat more paranoid:

>> Until we crack that one both in the UK and Australia, we're going to suffer the disadvantage over against the more libertarian, right-thinking people in the United States who have got Fox News and have therefore got things like the Tea party, and have therefore at last put some lead in the pencil of the Republican Party…You have the business people explaining how the free-market concept in business works every day and reaching thousands of millions of people around the world on Fox News. And let's be clear, that's still the way to do it. <<

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/feb/08/fox-news-lord-monckton-australia

bonmot,

Agree!

I said this before on another thread, but I'll say it again....Fox News is a cheer-squad for the Republican Party masquerading as a news outlet.

Graham,

You appear to overlook the fact that much U.S. right-wing support comes from an under-educated white underclass who seem happy to consistently vote against their own interests...the "fear" factor triumphs again.