Why would liberals and athletes be smarter than, say, conservatives and sedentary people?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "do.rflex" <do.rf...@...> wrote: > > > Liberals and Atheists Smarter? Intelligent People Have Values Novel in > Human Evolutionary History, Study Finds > > The study found that young adults who said they were > "very conservative" had an average adolescent IQ of 95, whereas > those who said they were "very liberal" averaged 106. > > Young adults who identify themselves as "not at all religious" > have an average IQ of 103 during adolescence, > while those who identify themselves as "very religious" > have an average IQ of 97 during adolescence. > > ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2010) More intelligent people are > statistically significantly more likely to exhibit social values and > religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species > in evolutionary history. > > Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), > preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence, a > new study finds. > > The study, published in the March 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed > scientific journal Social Psychology Quarterly, advances a new theory to > explain why people form particular preferences and values. The theory > suggests that more intelligent people are more likely than less > intelligent people to adopt evolutionarily novel preferences and values, > but intelligence does not correlate with preferences and values that are > old enough to have been shaped by evolution over millions of years." > > "Evolutionarily novel" preferences and values are those that humans are > not biologically designed to have and our ancestors probably did not > possess. In contrast, those that our ancestors had for millions of > years are "evolutionarily familiar." > > "General intelligence, the ability to think and reason, endowed our > ancestors with advantages in solving evolutionarily novel problems for > which they did not have innate solutions," says Satoshi Kanazawa, an > evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics and > Political Science. "As a result, more intelligent people are more > likely to recognize and understand such novel entities and situations > than less intelligent people, and some of these entities and situations > are preferences, values, and lifestyles." > > An earlier study by Kanazawa found that more intelligent individuals > were more nocturnal, waking up and staying up later than less > intelligent individuals. Because our ancestors lacked artificial light, > they tended to wake up shortly before dawn and go to sleep shortly after > dusk. Being nocturnal is evolutionarily novel. > > In the current study, Kanazawa argues that humans are evolutionarily > designed to be conservative, caring mostly about their family and > friends, and being liberal, caring about an indefinite number of > genetically unrelated strangers they never meet or interact with, is > evolutionarily novel. So more intelligent children may be more likely > to grow up to be liberals. > > Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add > Health) support Kanazawa's hypothesis. Young adults who subjectively > identify themselves as "very liberal" have an average IQ of 106 during > adolescence while those who identify themselves as "very conservative" > have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence. > > Similarly, religion is a byproduct of humans' tendency to perceive > agency and intention as causes of events, to see "the hands of God" at > work behind otherwise natural phenomena. "Humans are evolutionarily > designed to be paranoid, and they believe in God because they are > paranoid," says Kanazawa. This innate bias toward paranoia served > humans well when self-preservation and protection of their families and > clans depended on extreme vigilance to all potential dangers. "So, more > intelligent children are more likely to grow up to go against their > natural evolutionary tendency to believe in God, and they become > atheists." > > Young adults who identify themselves as "not at all religious" have an > average IQ of 103 during adolescence, while those who identify > themselves as "very religious" have an average IQ of 97 during > adolescence. > > In addition, humans have always been mildly polygynous in evolutionary > history. Men in polygynous marriages were not expected to be sexually > exclusive to one mate, whereas men in monogamous marriages were. In > sharp contrast, whether they are in a monogamous or polygynous marriage, > women were always expected to be sexually exclusive to one mate. So > being sexually exclusive is evolutionarily novel for men, but not for > women. And the theory predicts that more intelligent men are more > likely to value sexual exclusivity than less intelligent men, but > general intelligence makes no difference for women's value on sexual > exclusivity. Kanazawa's analysis of Add Health data supports these > sex-specific predictions as well. > > One intriguing but theoretically predicted finding of the study is that > more intelligent people are no more or no less likely to value such > evolutionarily familiar entities as marriage, family, children, and > friends. > > http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100224132655.htm >
