3 ms·

As a conservative, I concede some negative correlation could be present here. Certainly not a strong one, but perhaps a statistically measurable one. There ar

As a conservative, I concede some negative correlation could be present here. Certainly not a strong one, but perhaps a statistically measurable one. There are a couple of reasons off the top of my head for this. Our institutions of higher learning are, I think this is not in debate, generally left leaning. Kids that go there are smart enough to go to college, but they are kids, and some of them will be swayed left in that atmosphere, even if they might not have been if not exposed to it. That alone should skew the distribution as the article indicates. There's also the religious aspect, where intellectuals tend to be less religious, and by definition then, less conservative. I'm not sure what someone would do with this information, other than use it to make statements that would not generally be accurate.

astine 17y ago
It doesn't really matter how smart someone is, they tend to take on the opinions of their peers unless they are very strong willed. If smart people congregate together, it's likely that they will begin to hold similar opinions. So it's no real surprise if people who are smarter hold similar opinions. Of course, there's still something to be said about open-mindedness being an attribute of minds capable of handling ambiguity.
kingkongrevenge 17y ago
When you boil cultural conservatism down to its essence, as separate from the concepts of economic liberty which conservatives lean towards, the basic idea is that there is wisdom in the prevailing traditions and cultural attitudes. The wisdom can defy thoughtful analysis. It's the concept that society is the way it is because a process of darwinian selection has settled on the arrangement and it is dangerous to wantonly mess with this complex system. I would not be surprised that higher IQ people tend towards a certain arrogance that is dismissive of the idea that cultural traditions and attitudes carry value that defies individual understanding. Away from the cultural conservatism and towards market liberalism you often see the same thing: certain smart people can't cope with idea that there's a complex, self regulating system that defies understanding and should not be messed with.
- nostrademons 17y ago
  "It's the concept that society is the way it is because a process of darwinian selection has settled on the arrangement and it is dangerous to wantonly mess with this complex system." An economist sees a $100 bill on the sidewalk. He neglects to pick it up because it can't possibly be real. If it were, an efficient market dictates that somebody would already have picked it up. A five year old follows behind, picks it up, and exclaims "Look ma, I just found $100." The economist turns around and says, "See? I was right." Just because Darwinian selection gives better results than any individual decision does not absolve you from making individual decisions. It works because of the presence of mutations: take away the mutations, and evolution ceases to give useful results. You see the same problem in finance: the market is efficient only to the extent that people do not believe it is efficient, because once people start believing that it's efficient, they'll invest in index funds and nobody will actually scout out the information needed to drive good stocks higher and bad stocks lower. In short, I think that culture is a complex, self-regulating system, and that alone is why it should be messed with.

astine 17y ago

It doesn't really matter how smart someone is, they tend to take on the opinions of their peers unless they are very strong willed. If smart people congregate together, it's likely that they will begin to hold similar opinions. So it's no real surprise if people who are smarter hold similar opinions. Of course, there's still something to be said about open-mindedness being an attribute of minds capable of handling ambiguity.

kingkongrevenge 17y ago

When you boil cultural conservatism down to its essence, as separate from the concepts of economic liberty which conservatives lean towards, the basic idea is that there is wisdom in the prevailing traditions and cultural attitudes. The wisdom can defy thoughtful analysis. It's the concept that society is the way it is because a process of darwinian selection has settled on the arrangement and it is dangerous to wantonly mess with this complex system. I would not be surprised that higher IQ people tend towards a certain arrogance that is dismissive of the idea that cultural traditions and attitudes carry value that defies individual understanding. Away from the cultural conservatism and towards market liberalism you often see the same thing: certain smart people can't cope with idea that there's a complex, self regulating system that defies understanding and should not be messed with.

nostrademons 17y ago
"It's the concept that society is the way it is because a process of darwinian selection has settled on the arrangement and it is dangerous to wantonly mess with this complex system." An economist sees a $100 bill on the sidewalk. He neglects to pick it up because it can't possibly be real. If it were, an efficient market dictates that somebody would already have picked it up. A five year old follows behind, picks it up, and exclaims "Look ma, I just found $100." The economist turns around and says, "See? I was right." Just because Darwinian selection gives better results than any individual decision does not absolve you from making individual decisions. It works because of the presence of mutations: take away the mutations, and evolution ceases to give useful results. You see the same problem in finance: the market is efficient only to the extent that people do not believe it is efficient, because once people start believing that it's efficient, they'll invest in index funds and nobody will actually scout out the information needed to drive good stocks higher and bad stocks lower. In short, I think that culture is a complex, self-regulating system, and that alone is why it should be messed with.