Is intelligence correlated with political leanings?

[shira]

Restricting my obersvation to the college-educated, I think the very brightest tend to be the most left-leaning.

So, for example, I think the reason that the political beliefs of college professors tend to be overwhelmingly liberal is NOT that there's some discriminatory process at work that restricts tenure-track openings to lefties, but rather that tenure-track-candidate PhD's tend to be inherently much brighter (and therefore more liberal) than the general college-educated population. That is, the fraction of tenure-track-candidate PhDs that are conservative is pretty small.

I'm sure the righties here on ATPN will disagree with me on this. But that's hardly surprising. Remember, they tend to not be very bright.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: shira
Restricting my obersvation to the college-educated, I think the very brightest tend to be the most left-leaning.

*laughs hysterically*

Edit: Hold up, I'll try to contribute something useful to this wholly useless thread. Take a read through Professors and Intelligence which analyzes various positions taken in the recent past regarding intelligence and political leanings.

Let's also perhaps quickly mention that those most brilliant and therefore most left-leaning people apparently produced the wonders of communism and just lost two straight elections to the stupids in the U.S. Weird!

 

[Genx87]

No offense but using the university system as your basis for a conclusion is rather funny.

For starters a university system is a very sheltered artifical system of like minds. Once you are tenured you arent going away. No other job in the world has a perk like that. Secondly most universities rely on govt funding to stay afloat. It is an artificial enviornment that doesnt have the same market pressures as a private business. Thirdly while I am sure many professors are in it to teach their love. Many are also in it because they cant hack it in the real world and thus rely on the artificial system setup where tenure makes you immune to a firing and funding is never ending. If they were thrown out in the real world they would realize many of their ideas simply dont hold up.

And for the record there are plenty of morons on either side of the spectrum. It doesnt matter what their educated status is or where they work.

For instance Air America is a a mouthpiece for socialism. They havent turned a profit yet and sometimes dont even pay their employees health insurance or even wages. It survives from fund raising from rich liberals, not actually doing real business. Do you think the people running that place are some of the brightest minds in this country?

 

[Amplifier]

If those professors are so smart, why aren't they millionaires?

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: Genx87
No offense but using the university system as your basis for a conclusion is rather funny.

For starters a university system is a very sheltered artifical system of like minds. Once you are tenured you arent going away. No other job in the world has a perk like that. Secondly most universities rely on govt funding to stay afloat. It is an artificial enviornment that doesnt have the same market pressures as a private business. Thirdly while I am sure many professors are in it to teach their love. Many are also in it because they cant hack it in the real world and thus rely on the artificial system setup where tenure makes you immune to a firing and funding is never ending. If they were thrown out in the real world they would realize many of their ideas simply dont hold up.

And for the record there are plenty of morons on either side of the spectrum. It doesnt matter what their educated status is or where they work.

I'm not using the university system as the basis of my conclusion. I'm using it as an example. My conclusion is based on observing and drawing conclusions about those with whom I interact. It's certainly possible that my observations have been "circular" - perhaps I've tended to perceive liberals as intelligent (and righties as less intelligent) because the views liberals express make more sense to me (a hard-left liberal) than views expressed by righties. But I filter all my observations through my trusty bullsh_t-ometer, so I believe this effect is minimized.

The fact that there are morons (and geniuses) of all political stripes says nothing about whether a correlation exists.

 

[yllus]

Perhaps you simply need to get out and interact with a better set of people.

What views do you hold that make you believe you should be classified as a ultra-leftist? In my opinion, the most intelligent people out there are those who stand pretty firmly in the middle. I've never yet had a major political disagreement with an intelligent person where emotions were not involved. You always end up concluding that you're both really espousing the same views.

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: Amplifier
If those professors are so smart, why aren't they millionaires?

Perhaps because many highly intelligent people think that striving to accumulate wealth isn't nearly as satisfying as striving to discover new truths.

 

[conjur]

Not in the least. Looking to my own friends, family, co-workers, etc. I can safely say there's a broad mix of political leanings among everyone at every level of education.

It's more a matter of one's upbringing, circle of friends, and aspirations.

 

[Amplifier]

Originally posted by: shira

Originally posted by: Amplifier
If those professors are so smart, why aren't they millionaires?

Perhaps because many highly intelligent people think that striving to accumulate wealth isn't nearly as satisfying as striving to discover new truths.

I laughed at that IRL.

 

[Firsttime]

Anyone else here from Canada see Talking with Americans, by the 22 Minutes people? I think that showed just how bright college profs are. Particularly in the area of politics.

 

[judasmachine]

this has to be sheer myth. there are extremely bright people sitting on and either side of the fence and we all know it.

there are just differant parts of the various platforms that appeal to differant types of people.

 

[1EZduzit]

How can all those people that disagree with me be considered intelligent???

 

[judasmachine]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
How can all those people that disagree with me be considered intelligent???

We're just jealous of your infinate wisdom.

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: conjur
Not in the least. Looking to my own friends, family, co-workers, etc. I can safely say there's a broad mix of political leanings among everyone at every level of education.

It's more a matter of one's upbringing, circle of friends, and aspirations.

agreed.


the ops sentiments are a textbook example of whats wrong in politics and society in general these days. "you dont think the way i do, so obviously im a genius and youre a retard". claiming superiority only shows how ignorant and close minded you are.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: judasmachine

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
How can all those people that disagree with me be considered intelligent???

We're just jealous of your infinate wisdom.

ROFL, nobody knows how it feels to be surrounded by idiots!! BTW, I'm too sexy for my clothes, too.

 

[clear4dep]

I think when it comes down to it, most people, right and left, have the same goal in mind; the bettering of humanity. However, the split lies in exactly how we attain that goal. The rest of people, like has been said, get emotionally charged and are motivated just to spite the other side. Unfortunately, I think too much of our political conflicts become so emotional, they lose all value. The most intelligent people are those who can reason with someone else and come to a conclusion objectively. In some cases they may disagree because everything is not always black and white. In that case, the intelligent people would agree to disagree and settle it at that, without becoming emotionally involved and turning it into a conflict, which never gets anywhere.

 

[Moonbeam]

I think the difference between politically right and left is more a matter of intuition and feeling and the capacity to empathize. People on the right are pretty much interested in themselves and that's about it. Everybody was destroyed as children, but the right suffers Stockholm syndrome while the left identifies with the victims. Both are afraid the future will mirror the past but half seek as a preventative repression and the other half liberation.

The answer, of course, is that opposites dissolve in higher understanding. Not many of them type around however. Hehe. But we will either awaken or go extinct.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Restricting my obersvation to the college-educated, I think the very brightest tend to be the most left-leaning. So, for example, I think the reason that the political beliefs of college professors tend to be overwhelmingly liberal is NOT that there's some discriminatory process at work that restricts tenure-track openings to lefties, but rather that tenure-track-candidate PhD's tend to be inherently much brighter (and therefore more liberal) than the general college-educated population. That is, the fraction of tenure-track-candidate PhDs that are conservative is pretty small. I'm sure the righties here on ATPN will disagree with me on this. But that's hardly surprising. Remember, they tend to not be very bright.

LMAO...or it could be that because left leaning individuals are often unable to function in the competitive environment of reality, they choose to remain within the protective confines of their academic bubbles.

Numerous threads have contended with how Republicans, or more specifically Bush, is only out to protect the rich...now how exactly do you think many of these individuals attained affluence??? Entrepreneurs, CEOs and other successful businessmen...all highly intelligent individuals, and also tending to be right leaning.

Essentially your thread is nothing more then a typical elitist left wing troll...and not a particularly clever or compelling one at that.

 

[judasmachine]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: judasmachine

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
How can all those people that disagree with me be considered intelligent???

We're just jealous of your infinate wisdom.

ROFL, nobody knows how it feels to be surrounded by idiots!! BTW, I'm too sexy for my clothes, too.

LOL! yes us pathetic idiots....

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Originally posted by: Amplifier
If those professors are so smart, why aren't they millionaires?

The same reason you aren't

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975
Numerous threads have contended with how Republicans, or more specifically Bush, is only out to protect the rich...now how exactly do you think many of these individuals attained affluence???

I don't think you want to ask this question about Dubya in particular. He failed at pretty much every mega-lucrative business opportunity thrown in this path. My God, do you think this man is wealthy because of his ability or his brains (such as they aren't)? Even the hardest-right zealot can't mistake Bush's track record for talent.

Bush is certainly the extreme exception, though. Many entrepreneurs at least make it on their own starting from scratch. But note that the personality type correlated most strongly with business success does not include high intellect as one of its attributes. Unfortunately for Dubya, a LACK of intellect is not strongly correlated with any positive accomplishment.

 

[Infohawk]

1) The PIPA study showed Republicans were more clueless about objective political facts That doesn't speak to education or intellegence per se, but it strongly suggests there is some sort of "learning" problems with Republicans. Dems didn't actually do great in the study but they did better than Bush-supporters.

2) I have to say in my experience people with more education do tend to be liberals, but I admit its just my experience and haven't seen any conclusive studies on it. And don't get me wrong, it's not that I think the Bush-supporters are dumb (well I do), but that they are simply not present in the higher instutitions or present in much smaller numbers.

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I think the difference between politically right and left is more a matter of intuition and feeling and the capacity to empathize.

Four years ago I would have agreed with you. Not any more. These days anyone who would buy the garbage GWB and Republicans dish out is lacking in basic reasoning skills. There are very blatant inconsitencies these days that these people do not seem to pick up on.

 

[RabidMongoose]

I think that the extremity in political leanings probably results in less intelligence.

 

[Vic]

Is intelligence correlated with political leanings?

No.

Primary factors are age (youth tends to be more liberal) and upbringing (urban tends to be more liberal). College kids tend to be young and urban, so their liberalism is hardly any shocker. College professors are frequently college kids who never left college, and of late they have decided to use their political extremism to exclude for post graduate work anyone who does not agree with their political extremism (anyone read today's Doonesbury? sooo true).

IMO, it is extremism itself that is a sign of a lack of intelligence, as key factors of intelligence are the abilities to communicate, to compromise, and to work effectively with others, not to wail and cry like a child. This is probably why moderates and right-leaners are more successful in private industry (where there is a great deal more money, and a great deal more challenge), while the left extremists are stuck in the bureaucratic mediocrity that is government and education.

edit: The college snob bit by the OP is priceless too. On the Fortune list, 6 of the top 10 richest and half of the world's billionaires never completed their college educations before making their fortunes. Hmmm.... is Bill Gates not intelligent because he decided to forgo his education in order risk everything on creating Microsoft? What about all the self-made rich who grew poor, couldn't afford an education, and still became successful anyway? Oh, that's right, those people don't exist to liberals.. :roll:

 

[Infohawk]

I'm not a fan of the extreme right or left in the US but I don't think having extreme views makes you dumb. There are times in history where being a cook to other people was the smart, ethical thing to be. Take the radical abolitionists in the 19th century. They were extreme, but they weren't dumb. Same could be said for the revolutionary agitators in the 18th century.