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As easy as it would be to dispel this as something only low IQ / low capacity for development people would fall for, teleological thinking tends to slant toward
by sbinthree 8y ago
As easy as it would be to dispel this as something only low IQ / low capacity for development people would fall for, teleological thinking tends to slant towards schizophrenia-spectrum nervous systems. If you plot schizophrenia on a continuum from subclinical (one symptom) to clinical (threshold for diagnoses) you see teleological thinking / religious zealotry / conspiracy and paranoia in all parts of the spectrum, where it mostly gets worse as it progresses to clinical levels. Those of us on the autism spectrum tend to have the opposite neurology, with a low capacity for teleological thinking and more capacity for reductivism. Neurodiversity is interesting because whether you fall into one camp or the other (or somewhere in between) doesn't change much through your life, or affect IQ or other conventional measures of development capacity. The future is going to be interesting as evolution selects for more extreme traits in each of these domains.
- api 8y agoI'm not sure one way or the other about the schizophrenia link, but it is interesting. As far as IQ goes I completely agree. If anything I'd say that most of the people I've known who are into conspiracy theories have above average IQs. It's one of many reasons I'm not a believer in the IQ cult. There are so many other factors that lead to success in any area. Some are biological and some are intellectual and cultural. Someone with a high IQ but insane beliefs is at a large disadvantage vs. someone with a more average IQ and more rational beliefs. If anything a high IQ person with irrational beliefs will more effectively delude themselves and others.
- sbinthree 8y agoSchizophrenia incidence goes up with IQ from average, as does high functioning autism and bipolar disorder, the only health conditions that increase as you go up in IQ (all others decrease or aren't affected).