http://reverbpress.com/politics/proof-republicans-are-stupid/
5 Scientific Studies That Prove Republicans Are Plain Stupid
There are all types of statistics that could lead one to believe that liberals
are smarter than conservatives. These include the fact that “Blue States” have
higher graduation rates than “Red States” and the fact that most people who
seek higher education have liberal ideologies.
But in reality, these numbers provide circumstantial proof at best. We need
something more. Something that fully delves into the minds of conservatives
and liberals to see just what’s going on. Though the right-wingers out there
might not want you to know it, studies that do just that already exist.
Conservatism, Racism and Low IQ
“Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes” is a study performed by researchers at Brock
University, and it caused quite the commotion when its results were released.
The researchers found that having lower general intelligence in childhood
could predict conservative and racist ideas as an adult. That’s right: having
a low IQ score makes you more likely to vote conservative… and be a racist.
Now this isn’t to say that all Republicans are stupid. On the contrary: I
fully believe that rich Republicans are some of the smartest people in the
world. They literally trick poor Republicans into thinking it’s the big bad
government’s fault that they’re poor, and in doing so, they make these people
vote against their own best interests.
Even though being conservative doesn’t make you stupid, there’s no doubt that
being stupid makes you more likely to be conservative.
Fox News Makes You Less Informed
It’s not like we really needed a study to tell us this, but the survey “What
You Know Depends on What You Watch,” undertaken by Fairleigh Dickinson
University, found that watching Fox News results in knowing less about the
world. Researchers asked 1,185 respondents which news shows they consumed and
then asked general questions about newsworthy events.
Fox News less informed
Five questions were asked, and those who watch Fox News exclusively got 1.04
correct, on average. Individuals watching MSNBC, on the other hand, got 1.26.
NPR listeners? They got an impressive 1.51. The Daily Show? Surely a “fake
news” program couldn’t make you more informed than “the most watched cable
news channel in America.”
Yep, as it turns out, The Daily Show viewers scored 1.42 on average. The best
thing about this study, though? It asked questions to people who watch no news
at all, and those individuals scored 1.22 on average. That’s right: Fox News
makes you less informed than watching no news at all.
Let that sink in.
Low Effort Thought Leads to Conservatism
We live in a complex world, and understanding this world requires complex
thought. It would be easy to look at conservatives who think that all Muslims
are terrorists or all Mexicans should “go home” and say that they’re engaged
in simplistic thought. Instead of making that assumption ourselves, though,
let’s look towards science.
Researchers over at the University of Arkansas released their study [link
opens PDF] “Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism,” and things
started to make sense. They performed four different studies, all of which
reduced subjects’ ability to use “effortful, deliberate thought,” and they
found that situations causing low-effort thought resulted in more conservative
beliefs.
Heck, one of the studies found that, as an individual becomes more intoxicated
on alcohol, their conservative beliefs increase. Which makes perfect sense,
because if you ever saw me vote for Sarah Palin, you can rest assured that I’m
drunk.
Scratch that. It’s a catch-22. The amount of alcohol it would require for me
to vote for Palin would literally kill me.
Literally.
Homophobia Linked to Low Abstract Reasoning Skills
Let’s get this out of the way first: Yes, there are “liberals” out there who
are homophobic. That being said, homophobia is a largely conservative disease.
It’s conservatives who usually hold homophobic attitudes and fight against
marriage equality. With that being said, let’s look at abstract reasoning
skills.
Conservatives are dumb.
A researcher out of Kent State University undertook a study he would
eventually title “Abstract Reasoning as a Predictor of Attitudes Toward Gay
Men.” What he found was no big surprise. Those who have lower abstract
reasoning skills experience higher levels of anti-gay prejudice.
When they looked at other predictors of anti-gay prejudice, they found that
right-wing authoritarian ideas were most strongly related to this prejudice.
So lacking abstract reasoning and being a right-wing nut job increases your
prejudice against gays. Like we couldn’t have figured that out on our own.
It’s All In The Brain, Baby
Some of the aforementioned studies show us that being dumb makes you more
likely to be conservative, and unfortunately, watching conservative channels
like Fox News can make you even more dumb. Of course, conservatives will
likely attack these studies and say that they’re biased.
Unfortunately for them, the study “Political Orientations Are Correlated with
Brain Structure in Young Adults” was released. The researchers in this study
performed MRI scans on participants. Just so you know, there’s no way to
insert liberal bias into an MRI scan.
What they found was that “conservative students had a larger amygdala than
liberals.” Conversely, the anterior cingulate cortex of liberal students had
more gray matter than their conservative counterparts. Here’s why that’s
important:
“The amygdala is… active during states of fear and anxiety. […] The
anterior cingulate cortex [is] a region of the brain that helps people cope
with complexity.”
And the best part? This is biological. There’s no arguing the point. Liberals’
brains are biologically more able to handle complex thought, and conservatives
base their beliefs on fear. This study isn’t hard to believe when one
considers the fear conservatives showcase for immigrants, Muslims, minorities
and any of the other million things they’re bigoted towards. Hence the success
of the 24-7 fear cycle of Fox News.
These are peer-reviewed studies, by scientists who cumulatively have more
degrees than I’ve got houses in my neighborhood. Conservatives can try to say
they’re biased all they want, but as we know from their beliefs on climate
change, they don’t subscribe much to the area of science.
Conservatives are dumb… it’s a scientific fact.