General

Liberals have higher IQs: study

Evolutionary psychologist links intelligence to religious, political beliefs

Religious conservatives won’t like this: according to new research, the most intelligent among us are atheist liberals. In an article for Social Psychology Quarterly, Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist from the London School of Economics and Political Science, argues there’s an evolutionary explanation behind his findings. Kanazawa found that young adults who identify as “non-religious” and “very liberal” had an average IQ of 103—six points higher than their devout, “very conservative” peers. According to Kanazawa, this is due to the fact that humans, who began as hunter-gatherers, are biologically engineered to be conservative and care “only about the people we associate with,” such as family, friends and kin. Likewise, hunter gatherers sought to explain natural phenomena—which he describes as “evolutionarily novel”—through religion. More intelligent humans, he says, have been able to evaluate these elements and decide what they mean. Kanazawa also found a link between intelligence and monogamy—those who believed in being loyal to a single partner tended to be smarter than their polygamous-leaning peers.

Toronto Star

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.