this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
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A study conducted in Germany found that men with higher IQs are less inclined to traditional values, but the lead author, psychologist and intelligence researcher Maximilian Krolo of Saarland University, said the researchers did not find these differences among women.

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[–] Azrael@reddthat.com 29 points 6 days ago (1 children)

"The current study showed that high intelligence does not, as one might assume, lead to radical political positions. Instead, highly gifted adults are on average just as politically diverse and moderate as the rest of the population."

Well that headline is...misleading.

[–] forkDestroyer@infosec.pub 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Imagining a world where the headlines aren't click bait and the articles are well researched. One day...

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

You'd need media that wasn't predicated on advertising revenues.

[–] Vespair@lemmy.zip 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

"Solid ice colder than liquid water, study finds."

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago

Proof that academia cultures the left, neglecting real science like the fact that you can pressurize water into ice while preserving its warmth!

~ a conservative somewhere

[–] joan@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

"My social media isn't an echo chamber"

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

As a high IQ person I would like to remind everyone that IQ has been coopted by a scientific racism and eugenics agenda, and the originator, a French man by the name of Alfred Binet,

"stressed that intellectual development progressed at variable rates and could be influenced by the environment; therefore, intelligence was not based solely on genetics, was malleable rather than fixed, and could only be found in children with comparable backgrounds."

We can only assume that any correlation in beliefs and scoring is the product of an environment which tends to produce both or inhibits the production of both. IE Fox News makes you dumb, and Fox News makes you conservative, concurrently. The study does not mention TV.

[–] ChadGPT2@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I wonder if there’s a similar study that uses executive capacity (multitasking etc.) as a more objective measure of intelligence. When I was in school, this was the most supported way to objectively measure intelligence (but of course, is that actually intelligence? Intelligence is just a word we have. Having the word doesn’t mean that the concept exists.)

Maybe, but I think that's still going to be a function of environment vs innate. There's not really an objective measure when existence is subjective, and an individual's capacity for effort is very dependent on their resources that they can consume. All sorts of effort, not just intellectual.

A fact so obvious and apparent only a German would even bother asking.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I am pretty sure that I would flunk IQ tests, and I have leftist preferences. Mathematics and other subjects of high learning are not something I really understand. While I appreciate neat things like electricity, chemistry, design, and AI, I simply don't understand them to any meaningful extent.

That sucks. I would like to have a character sheet with +10 bonuses across the board, and a platinum piece to start my game with. Same goes for the rest of the neighborhood.

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There's no flunking an IQ test, but you are probably a normal median person.

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 6 points 6 days ago

The fact they don't think they're a genius and know their limits suggests they're probably smarter than average. I've found the dumbest people have an unshakable confidence they're always correct.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] Vinylraupe@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 days ago

In my opinion IQ measures only a narrow field of the brains capabilities. Namely logical thinking.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 days ago
[–] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I think being knowledgeable leads someone to be more liberal than they otherwise would have been. Less inclined to fear the outgroup and fear change. This is why a college degree is so associated with liberalism. I don't know how well that corresponds to IQ, which itself is kind of wishy washy.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

being knowledgeable

IQ has nothing to do with being knowledgeable. Shit headlines like this play into the exact same eugenics theory of humanity that gooners like RFK Jr and Peter Thiel have been pushing.

I don’t know how well that corresponds to IQ

It's quite literally just a measurement of one's pattern recognition speed. Has nothing to do with your politics.

Case in point, Christopher Langan, who regularly outperformed on these cognition tests, was a total nerd on trivia, and ended up becoming a forest ranger because he had a perpetual chip on his shoulder. Once his reputation blew up as someone who could ace cognitive tests, he leveraged that into becoming a right-wing grifter.

The guy is a total piece of shit who tests well. Go out to any of the Ivy League universities and you'll find this kind of person in spades. Silicon Valley, the DC Beltway, Wall Street, Raytheon Acres, the Florida Real Estate scene - very intelligent assholes are a dime a dozen. FFS, we built our rocket labs on Nazi scientists. No shortage of right-wingers in the "High IQ" space.

[–] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Yeah, being knowledgeable is quantifiable. IQ is wishy washy and easily misused

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 days ago

This isn’t enough info right? Wouldn’t we need to know the baseline before they state women dont shift to the left at a higher IQ?

Like if when are 80% progressive already, a high IQ might make them 85% progressive

But if men are 30% progressive an a high IQ makes them 70% progressive.

[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social 154 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (8 children)

from a logical standpoint, conservatism is lacking any kind of sense or logic. I think it's safe to assume that, in order to follow blindly an idea that crumbles as soon as you critically think about it, you have to lack the ability to critically think.

What I think tho is that it's empathy what we should link to intelligence (or whatever you want to call the skill set that allows you to question and critizice everything).

Conservatism is a lack of empathy (which comes with a lack of said "intelligence").

[–] Smaile@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

it would be easy to fake. its not hard know how to be a good person in theyre given socity, manipulator do it all the time. also are you going to define morality for all of humanity for this test? yah good luck with that lol.

[–] Lemming6969@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

There are very few actual republicans or conservatives now. What you are describing is not historical conservatism either socially or fiscally.

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[–] RunningInRVA@lemmy.world 98 points 1 week ago
[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 70 points 1 week ago (8 children)

To be liberal requires empathy. A deep understanding of others and their situations and the knowledge that your own personal needs dont always automatically outweigh others.

Empathy requires emotional intelligence.

Its easy to see it in action. Pick a problem and then look at the solutions offered by populist politicians to solve them.

In the UK one of the problems is immigrants arriving on small boats. The populist "solution"? "STOP THE BOATS" shouted far and wide.

How we ask?

And then silence. And when pressed, the likes of Reform offer more soundbites like "use the navy" and "send them back" but without any substance.

Meanwhile Liberal politicians offer actual solutions that are not sound bites, and they won't work quickly. Things like working with the French to find and arrest the people organising it. Helping to improve facilities in France and the rest of Europe so the UK isn't seen as somewhere an immigrant needs to travel to.

Basically, intelligent people aren't fooled by meaningless slogans. Morons aren't able to understand that deep problems require deep and complex solutions.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

It is not just a question of emotional intelligence. As an autistic person, this is really a weak point in my statistics.

I'm simply not stupid enough to fall for their ideas.

[–] Smaile@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

yes. the whole "liberals require empathy" thing comes of as moral masturbation to me. like everyone else is incapable of it or something.

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[–] UnrepententProcrastinator@lemmy.ca 70 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Aaah a feel-good article for leftists.

Plenty of dumb dumbs among us, don't worry.

[–] AnalogHole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 1 week ago (10 children)

There's a reason universities lean heavily left

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[–] osanna@lemmy.vg 60 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Of course. There's a reason why conservatives don't want the masses educated. Because they'd see how much they're getting fucked by said conservatives.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 58 points 1 week ago

Higher IQ is also associated with higher Critical Thinking Skills, which help you recognize and avoid conservative propaganda.

[–] Sisyphe@lemmy.world 49 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Here's a link to the paper, so you don't have to read an article about an article.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289625000893

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 38 points 1 week ago (11 children)

IQ testing is pseudoscience. It's one of the preferred methods of the far right to try to differentiate between races for that very reason. Pseudoscience is a lot more malleable for their purposes than the settled science that says race doesn't exist biologically.

Having a "high IQ" is only proof that you're good at IQ tests.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

[H]owever much all this soothes my vanity, and however much I appreciate being vice-president of Mensa, an organization which bases admission to its membership on IQ, I must, in all honesty, maintain that it means nothing.

What, after all, does such an intelligence test measure but those skills that are associated with intelligence by the individuals designing the test? And those individuals are subject to the cultural pressures and prejudices that force a subjective definition of intelligence. [...]

The whole thing is a self-perpetuating device. Men in intellectual control of a dominating section of society define themselves as intelligent, then design tests that are a series of clever little doors that can let through only minds like their own, thus giving them more evidence of "intelligence" and more examples of "intelligent people" and therefore more reason to devise additional tests of the same kind. More circular reasoning!

--Isaac Asimov, "Thinking About Thinking," 1975

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago

Great quote, thanks!

[–] Smaile@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago

its better then getting a low score on a IQ test.

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[–] turtlesareneat@piefed.ca 26 points 1 week ago (6 children)

In before everyone trashes IQ for being racist and pointless.

And I'm not saying it isn't ethnocentric and a bit arbitrary. But walk around a Mensa meeting and you'll see things in common.

Mostly that everyone is really socially inept if not outright problematic.

But 90% liberal, yeah.

[–] curiousaur@reddthat.com 21 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Mensa is not a good selector. First off it not that high of an IQ requirement, second, they have to want to join Mensa. Real brilliant folks have little interest.

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[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (10 children)
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[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is because reality itself has a strong left-leaning bias, and intelligence makes you encounter that a lot more as you interact with reality.

Sure, there are highly intelligent right-wingers, but intelligence only gives you the cognitive tools to discover reality, it doesn’t force you to use them. Just because a person is intelligent doesn’t mean they can’t slide off into wharrderp fantasy land.

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[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Fuck IQ. Literally political stance is a better measurement of intelligence.

Wait...

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[–] AlexLost@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Men with high net worth are more conservative leaning?! Isn't that weird. Learning about the world builds compassion, while feeding your own greed breeds self interest. So weird. Remind me why we ask the opinions of rich people again?

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