Sunday, March 04, 2012

Are moderates smart?

The media gives the impression that only moderate Republicans are intelligent. The truth is that the dumbest spot on the political continuum is the center.

Using data on the GSS vocabulary test, I created an IQ score for all respondents. I've listed the mean IQ for those who voted for McCain, Obama, and those who describe themselves as moderates (sample size = 944).


Mean IQ

McCain 102.28
Obama 100.06
Moderates 97.72

The difference between people who voted for McCain and self-described moderates is statistically significant.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:14 PM

    But if most blacks voted for Obama then the whites who voted for Obama might have been smarter than the, probably mostly white, moderates.

    You could check this pretty easily, I imagine.
    Robert Hume

    ReplyDelete
  2. The ultimate moderates--conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans--are the least intelligent of all.

    Converting to IQ using wordsum, the mean IQ for:

    Liberal Democrats -- 102.7
    Conservative Democrats -- 92.4
    Liberal Republicans -- 92.8
    Conservative Republicans -- 100.6

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:19 PM

    Jim Bowery,

    There is a current thread at a forum discussing your thinking and your criticism of Austrian school economics and libertarianism:

    http://www.saloforum.com/index.php?threads/james-bowery-contra-the-austrian-school.2063/

    It would be interesting if you could clarify some of your views there.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12:40 PM

    But if most blacks voted for Obama then the whites who voted for Obama might have been smarter than the, probably mostly white, moderates.


    And what would this prove? It would only reinforce the fact that the moderates are less intelligent than the "partisans".

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't trust those self-identified political views tests. In SDA's American National election study, 63% of self-identified liberals said that Democrats are more conservative than Republicans.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Baaaaa Baaaaa!!!

    ReplyDelete
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