POLITICSEconomics and Political Science, evaluated a group of men and women
who had taken IQ tests back when they were in high school. The scores
were averaged by political ideology, and a remarkably clear trend
emerged. Adults who described themselves as very liberal had higher
intelligence scores compared to those who described themselves as
simply liberal. The liberals had higher scores than those who described
themselves as middle of the road, and the progression held steady all the
way down to those who described themselves as very conservative. With a
score of 100 representing the average, very liberal adults had an IQ of
106 and very conservative ones had an IQ of 95.
A smaller but similar trend was seen with regard to religiosity.
Atheists had an IQ of 103, whereas those who described themselves as
very religious averaged 97. It’s important to emphasize that these are
averages. Within the larger groups there are brilliant conservatives and
not-so-brilliant liberals. Furthermore, the overall differences are small.
The “Normal” range is 90 to 109. “Superior intelligence” starts at 110
and “Genius” at 140.
Mental flexibility—the ability to change one’s behavior in response
to changing circumstances—is also an ingredient in how we measure
intelligence. To evaluate mental flexibility, researchers at New York
University set up an experiment in which they asked test participants to
press a button when they saw the letter W and to refrain from pressing
when they saw the letter M. The participants had to think fast. When
the letter was displayed, they had only half a second to decide whether
or not to press the button. To make things even harder, the researchers
sometimes switched up the rule: press on M, refrain on W.
Conservatives had more difficulty than liberals, particularly when a
series of press signals was followed by a refrain signal. When the signal
for change came, they had trouble adjusting their behavior.
To get a better understanding of what was going on, the scientists
attached electrodes to the participants’ heads so they could measure
brain activity during the test. There wasn’t much difference between
liberals and conservatives when the press symbol was displayed. But
when the no-press signal came up, and the participants had half a sec-
ond to make a decision, the liberals instantly fired up a part of their