Are people on the right less intelligent than those on the left?

My answer on Quora.

The problem with this type of question is that it opens up the floor to back and forth name calling and unsubstantiated positions that rarely refer to the evidence. In fact there are three bigger questions that actually precede this one that ought to be looked at first. These are

• What is intelligence and how best do we qualify or quantify it?
• What do we mean by right and left wing?
• What factors may cloud our assessment?

The First Question is the subject of great debate in Psychology. IQ tests exist and many approximate g (general intelligence very well) but a broader intelligence seems more complicated than that. In fact I have seen models posited over one hundred attributes that may impact intelligence. The General Intelligence Factor

Question Two is an issue that sits at the heart of political science. Right and Left are meaningless concepts unless the center is defined. Right or Left in one country is not necessarily the same as another. Also their are several axes of evaluation - economic freedom, authoritarian political structure etc that further complicate the issue. A sliding scale is too simple a proposition for evaluating stances that are multi-dimensional.

Question Three is a problem of Psychometrics. No test is perfect, at best they approximate a few aspects of reality and are subject to various contingencies (anxiety etc) that are difficult to gauge or correct for.

Having said this one can make certain assumptions to answer this question.

• IQ scores from a well normed test (WAIS, Stanford-Binet etc) correlates well with what intelligence is believed to be.
• The right includes both Social Conservatives and Economic Conservatives as well as Libertarians (Classic Liberals). The left includes modern liberals, progressives and various socialists.

Here is some of what I have seen.

1. ScienceDirect - Individuals who identify as Republican have slightly higher verbal intelligence (2–5 IQ points). Individuals who vote Republican have slightly higher verbal intelligence (2 IQ points). Verbal intelligence is correlated with socially and economically liberal beliefs (β = .10-.32).
2. Is there a relationship between political orientation and cognitive ability? A test of three hypotheses in two studies. From the abstract - Study 1, focusing on students at a selective US university (n=7279), found support for the idea that some dimensions of conservatism are linked to lower verbal ability, whereas other dimensions are linked to higher verbal ability. There was also strong support for political extremists both on the left and right being higher in verbal ability than centrists.
3. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org.... Conclusion - Center right and center have the highest IQ - Brazilian study.

Whatever it is, the relationship is complex. Here are some other takes…Conservatives Are Dumber, and Smarter, Than Liberals. Another two from a liberal perspective - The politics of IQ - Macleans.ca and The primitive argument for liberal genius.

Here is an analysis from a British perspective. Whether you look at leaders or voters, Labour is now the stupidest party | The Spectator

In terms of political knowledge though Republican voters score higher than Democrats. Well Known:Public Option, Sonia Sotomayor Little Known: Cap and Trade, Max Baucus (Pew Research link).

In short…I would be cautious about drawing too many conclusions from any of this…Who is more intelligent - left or right? Neither..Follow the arguments on each issue and base your decision on that.