Wasn't there a study about the relative intelligence of liberals/conservatives, and another on other

[VLC]

traits?

Does anyone have links to them?

The first found that liberals are smarter, the second found that conservatives are fearful and need strong leaders.

At least that's how I remember them!

[ComerPerro]

1. I contend that if conservatives are smart, then they are simply liars

because to believe the bullshit they subscribe to requires either limited mental capabilities or complete master of doublethink.

[progdonkey]

2. re: conservatives need strong authoritarian leaders

Here's a post from Crooks and Liars about an article in Psychology Today:

Twenty years later, they decided to compare the subjects' childhood personalities with their political preferences as adults. They found arresting patterns. As kids, liberals had developed close relationships with peers and were rated by their teachers as self-reliant, energetic, impulsive, and resilient. People who were conservative at age 23 had been described by their teachers as easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited, and vulnerable at age 3. The reason for the difference, the Blocks hypothesized, was that insecure kids most needed the reassurance of tradition and authority, and they found it in conservative politics.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/21/the-ideological-animal/

[VLC]

3. Thanks!

[StClone]

5. There is more to the story

Intelligence is not the whole story...

You must read John dean's Conservatives Without Conscience. The many years of study on Authoritarian (he doesn't cover radicals widely, however) leaders and followers is absolutely a must read for anybody interested in Society, Politics or the state of things. Dean gets into why these people act as they do.

[Romulox]

4. Remember that there's such a thing as conservative Democrats, and Liberal Republicans...nt

[DangerDave921]

6. Please

Please do not attempt to confuse those who wish to have easy-to-understand labels to apply to people, and who want validation of the inherent rightousness of their own beliefs.

Come on folks. Do we really need some psycho-babble study to tell ourselves that liberals are smarter?

People who are secure in their own beliefs don't need some study to verify it. Grow up.

[VLC]

9. I wanted it to send to a "friend"

who sent out some BS over an email list of friends. The list is nonpolitical but he sent some rightwing crap that was way over the top. When I answered and said I didn't want to read that kind of stuff on our list, he responded with a Churchill quote -

If you aren't a liberal at 20 you're heartless, and if you aren't a conservative at 40 you're brainless.

So it has nothing to do with being secure in my beliefs.

[StClone]

12. That quote alone encapsulates the way they think

Quips and terse little catch-alls tossed out to defend a mindset. If you really get into that phrase it may as well be a swipe at aging and approaching feeble mindedness.

[VLC]

13. Right.

And as far as I know he's the only conservative in the bunch, so basically he just called all his friends brainless. Which is a brainless thing to do ;-)

[The Vinyl Ripper]

14. Ask him what he thinks of evolution..

That usually separates the sheep from the goats..

[mitchtv]

7. Wasn't there a study that showed

The more Faux Noise that you watched , the less you knew? I'd like to find it.

[StClone]

8. Pew Research?

http://people-press.org/

Hit the blue bars of the graph and it shift to a break down of broadcast news.

[lpbk2713]

10. In all fairness, rethuglicans can't really be expected to rate high on intelligence.

Not with all that inbreeding going on. :eyes:

[EstimatedProphet]

11. Who even needs to do a study?

Here's proof:

http://www.freerepublic.com/

[DemGa]

15. There's a long involved article about political conservatism

that's often cited, called:

“Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition”

It usually comes up as a PDF in a search.