Gordon Hodson: Conservatives Are Innately Inferior...

...but we shouldn’t stigmatize these racists, because they were born that way -- right?

Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes: Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater Prejudice Through Right-Wing Ideology...

...lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies ... we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology. A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice.

Gordon Hodson, Michael A Busseri, Brock University*

Few will have the opportunity to scrutinize Hodson's report because the deficiencies of this poorly-designed retrospective study are hidden behind a paywall (update 2.1.2012: now available to the general public), but politically charged "science" should always be viewed with skepticism.

Ironically, the science of intelligence is usually an anathema to progressive intellectuals. (Perhaps this is true because the heritability of intelligence poses a threat to the politics of radical egalitarianism).

But I digress.

Celebrated progressive scientists have insisted that it’s racist or stupid to take seriously the mountains of data that show differences in IQ between human populations, and they believe that "general intelligence" is not a valid concept. But IQ research suddenly becomes valid when it's construed to tell progressives something they want to hear about racism, giving them justification for bigoted attitudes against conservatives.

The mind-warping hypocrisy and willful ignorance is astonishing.

**UPDATE: A more thorough discussion of Hodson's report here.

"Some of his best friends are conservative."

Gordon Hodson

Phone: (905)688-5550 ext.5127

e-mail: ghodson@brocku.ca

*Emphasis added

Addendum: James Taranto sums it up very well...

So IQ tests are racist, except when they're used to "prove" that people with "socially conservative ideologies" are racist and intellectually inferior.

Update II:

Low IQ & Liberal Beliefs Linked To Poor Research? (for M. Scott Veach)

Update III:

Criticism from from Razib Khan.