Who is stupider? Republicans or Democrats?
By The Horse
@TheHorse (238317)
Walnut Creek, California
May 10, 2020 1:45pm CST
As the election approaches, we hear more an more rhetoric about how stupid Republicans must be to support Trump, or how stupid Democrats must be to support Slow Joe. Trump is sacrificing lives to boost the economy and the stock market. Democrats are robbing us of our individual rights by forcing us to stay home. Surely the "other side" is made up of bumbling fools while "our side" is enlightened.
I decided to do a little internet research this morning to see whether there is a relationship between political party affiliation and intelligence. The first study I read used a very brief assessment of verbal ability as their measure of "verbal ability." They found that Republicans scored about 3 points higher than Democrats.
Oh no! Everything I know must be wrong! (I'm a registered Democrat.) But as I read on, I discovered that most of the difference between Republicans and Democrats in verbal IQ were explained away by Socio-Economic-Status (SES). Rebublicans tend to be wealthier, and wealth leads to better education, which leads (on average) to slight verbal advantages for Republicans.
The second study I looked at was sort of a "meta-analysis" (summarizing the results of previous studies) It found that, using a wide range of cognitive measures, Democrats were slightly smarter than Republicans overall. But again, the differences were slight.
The third article I read was actually a summary of research using different measures of Liberal and Conservative values. It found that Liberals were sightly smarter, but that the smart Liberals tended to be the ones who were "non-Socialist" in their leanings. For example, the tended to respond negatively to the question, "It's the responsbility of the government to take care of its people financially, regardless of whether they work or not" (or something lie that). The smartest Conservatives were those who were fiscally moderate to conservative, but socially Liberal (non-racist, non-homophobic, etc.).
The take home message: If you come across someone who says that Democrats or Rebublicans are "stupid," you have to tell them: "Sorry, it's more complicated than that. Overall, Republicans and Democrats are equal and IQ. You have to consider measures used in the studies, SES, and other factors to draw firm conclusions.
The real world is a bit more complicated than a Facebook meme, isn't it? To me, the "dummies" are the ones who are so "entrenched" in their views, they can't even hear what the "other side" is saying. Your thoughts?
10 people like this
11 responses
@TheHorse (238317)
• Walnut Creek, California
10 May 20
He's an odd fella. I did some research yesterday and have come to the belief that he has dyslexia as well as narcissistic personality disorder. His early inability keep up with his peers in reading and writing probably contributed to his sense of inferiority, and his extreme NPD may be exacerbated by compensation for that sense of inferiority.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (238317)
• Walnut Creek, California
10 May 20
@sallypup That's a given. I'm reading Ronan Farrow's book about Class A pervert Harvey Weinstein right now. I wonder what he would come up with if Farrow (who seems to be a good investigative reporter) did a book on Trump's antics, hush money, etc.
1 person likes this

@TheHorse (238317)
• Walnut Creek, California
10 May 20
@mrki444 Confirmation bias occrurs when we have strongly held beliefs and selectively attend to, encode (take in), and remember information that supports that belief. We will tend to ignore, rationalize, and later forget information that does not support our belief. Do you want me to try and think up some examples? Or, better yet, can you think of examples from your own life? Heh. I could go on and on (I lecture about this stuff).
"...a mean hears what he want to hear and disregards the rest" --Simon and Garfunkel
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@CaptAlbertWhisker (32760)
• Calgary, Alberta
10 May 20
Stupidly powerful since they sabotaged the careers of 3rd parties with potential to lead better.
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@CaptAlbertWhisker (32760)
• Calgary, Alberta
10 May 20
@TheHorse There are but media sabotage them so bad like they are not invited to debates.
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@TheHorse (238317)
• Walnut Creek, California
11 May 20
@CaptAlbertWhisker I was being facetious, of course.

@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
11 May 20
I get tired of 'if they dont agree with me they must be stupid'. I also get tired of people just accepting what's on the internet without fact checking.
Or those who are ignoring science.
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@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
12 May 20
@TheHorse alot of people ignore science, or look for stuff to use to justify their own slanted beliefs
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@TheHorse (238317)
• Walnut Creek, California
12 May 20
@Jessicalynnt Yeppers, that's good old "confirmation bias" kicking in.
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@TheHorse (238317)
• Walnut Creek, California
11 May 20
I agree. How do people become so rigid? And are the ones who don't fact-check just lazy? Ore are they (this sounds snobby) "under-educated"? I actually know people who trust "intuition" or "metaphysics/astrology" over science.
1 person likes this

@crossbones27 (52905)
• Mojave, California
10 May 20
I have to agree I think both are they keep repeating the same mistakes. They do know that is the definition of insanity. Yes I did learn that the hard way as always. 

1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (222417)
• United States
10 May 20
The dummies are definitely the ones that are not open-minded. Interesting post.
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@Bensen32 (28658)
• United States
10 May 20
Well, I think both are equally smart, they get a lot of people to believe the lies they are saying and get people to put them in power and think they care about the people of this country. I believe they are more interested in helping themselves stay in power than they are ever interested in helping. They will say and do just about anything to get the next vote.
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