The GSS says whites wanting to prohibit marriage between blacks and whites are dumb, but not crazy: The stereotype of a white nationalist (WN) is a inbred hillbilly who's missing some teeth and who missed school after about the 6th grade. But the folks of this persuasion on the Internet I've talked to are generally a smart bunch. My students stare at me in disbelief when I tell them that William Pierce had a PhD in physics. I imagine people who debate on the Internet are the cream of the crop, but I don't know--the dumb stereotype may be the product of hostility. And the image is not just one of low intelligence, but also mental illness. Just yesterday, I talked to a guy who lived in Hayden Lake, Idaho for many years and was on friendly terms with a number of WNs, but he told me that when he moved from there, the WN types were getting pretty psycho.
I couldn't find a perfect question to identify WNs, but the General Social Survey did ask if you are in favor of a law forbidding marriage between blacks and whites. Respondents were also asked if they have ever had a mental illness. Here are the results:
Mean IQ--whites
Against laws prohibiting intermarriage 102.1
For laws prohibiting intermarriage 92.2
Percent having had a mental illness--whites
Against laws prohibiting intermarriage 8.3
For laws prohibiting intermarriage 1.7
Keep in mind that that sample of those in favor of this type of law is small--only 59 people. But going on what we have here, these folks have a low average IQ but are less likely to have experienced some kind of mental health problem.
Are gun owners mentally ill?
Some anti-gun people think owning a gun is a sign of some kind of mental abnormality. According to General Social Survey data, gun owners ...
I wonder what the IQ is of people who conduct social surveys where they don't distinguish between social scale. Simple distinctions like:
ReplyDeleteIf you were a woman and pregnant, would you ever abort a pregnancy that wasn't endangering your life?
Would you tolerate the existence of a state, anywhere in the nation, that allowed a woman to abort a pregnancy that wasn't endangering her life?
Would you tolerate the existence of a country, anywhere in the world, that allowed a woman to abort a pregnancy that wasn't endangering her life?
It doesn't seem to me that it would take an IQ that high to come up with a social scale for these questions so maybe what's going on is the social scientists are so intelligent they just leave it out or something.
What do you think Mr. Inductivist?
Questions:
ReplyDeleteWhat fraction of whites were against interracial couples? Of blacks?
I have heard that the racist answer to this question correlates possitively with wanting goverment economc transfers. True?
I also heard that the correlation was surpricingly low with seing blacks as inferiour and wanting living segregation.
Ideological WN's(as opposed to reflexive white racists) are such a tiny minority they will never show up in any poll. The media blackout no doubt plays a role in this.
ReplyDeleteJim: I found another question we can look at that deals with attitudes closer to home: respondents were asked if they would object to having a family member bring a black friend home for dinner. The mean IQ scores for whites are:
ReplyDeleteWouldn't object 101.4
Would mildly object 94.6
Would strongly object 90.7
Tino: In the most recent year asked (2000), 11.7% of whites favored such a law, while 3.7% of blacks did.
ReplyDeleteIf I get time, I'll look up the other stuff.
The last two aren't much discussed as most people don't bother thinking about them, particularly the third. Most people aren't interested in invading countries to change their way of life, unless they work for Bush.
ReplyDeleteRon, there's an old proverb I like to tell that describes the problem of "IQ":
ReplyDeleteOnce there were 3 ducks in a pond discussing the approach of fall: a dumb duck, a smart duck and a genius duck. The dumb duck said, "Gee, its fall. I'm out of here." The smart duck said, "These dumb ducks are always flying south when fall comes without questioning their bigotry toward fall. I'm smart and I don't see any reason for this chauvinistic autmnophobia. It gets the slightest bit cold and the dumb fly off in a blind panic. I'm staying." The genius duck said, "Well, I'm not sure why the dumb ducks fly south come fall, but I feel the urge too -- and maybe -- just maybe there is some reason for it. Rather than stick around here to find out, I think I'll fly south for the winter and see what has happened to the smart ducks when I return with the rest of us 'dumb' ducks."
But then they were all killed by the imposition of a law against flying south for the winter.
OK, so I made the proverb up... but you get the point...
Jim: I like Bill Buckley's comment that he would prefer a random 2,000 Americans off the street to run the country rather than Harvard professors.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Buckley, I want going to correct your quote to "the first 50 names in the Boston phone book", but it seems there's some uncertainty about his actual words:
ReplyDeletehttp://kipesquire.powerblogs.com/posts/1132066457.shtml
Intellectual Pariah