Men with higher IQs are less conservative, study finds
New research suggests that gifted men are less conservative in their political views than men with average cognitive abilities.
A study in Germany found that men with higher IQs are less inclined to traditional values, but lead author, psychologist and intelligence researcher Maximilian Krolo of Saarland University, said researchers did not find these differences in women.
The study is based on the Marburg Giftedness project, for which more than 7,000 primary school pupils underwent IQ tests in the 1987/1988 school year. About 150 children, or 2% of them, were gifted.
Most of these people (107) were observed for many years in a longitudinal study with a control group of people of average intelligence and were interviewed repeatedly on various topics, the author said.
“Now, more than 35 years later, we were able to ask this group of people questions about their political views,” said education researcher Jörn Sparfeldt, a professor at Saarland University in Germany. It said 87 highly able adults and 71 average-ability adults responded, a response rate of just under 75 percent.
According to the researchers, study participants placed themselves politically on a scale from left to right and completed a detailed questionnaire about their political orientation. It covered four areas, including socialism and liberalism.
“This shows that the group of men with average abilities tends to support values associated with tradition and a strict social order. Men with high IQ less often hold these traditional conservative views,” Krolo said.
“Since highly gifted people often occupy influential positions, it is interesting to understand how they perceive politics, economics and society,” Sparfeldt said. He led the Marburg Giftedness Project as scientific director for three years.
The current study showed that high intelligence does not lead, as one might assume, to radical political positions. Instead, highly gifted adults are on average as politically diverse and moderate as the rest of the population.
“Further research is still needed, for example, whether more conservative attitudes are also reflected in political action,” said Sparfeldt.
The study, which also included Detlef Rost of Philipps University Marburg in Germany, was published in January in the academic journal Intelligence.
