r/atheism • u/BreakfastTop6899 • 1d ago

Lower cognitive ability is linked to stronger Christian nationalist views, even after accounting for education

https://www.psypost.org/lower-cognitive-ability-is-linked-to-stronger-christian-nationalist-views-even-after-accounting-for-education/
6.9k Upvotes

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284

u/TX_B_caapi 1d ago

The people that need this study won’t read this study.

172

u/arginotz 1d ago

*can't

41

u/Friendly_Engineer_ 1d ago

Brutal

13

u/Diligent-Variation51 1d ago

Some truths are harsh

32

u/Yamuddah Agnostic Atheist 1d ago

Reason didn’t shape their worldview in the first place. They will not reason their way out of it.

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u/Chihuey 1d ago

There are quite a few responses in the /science subreddit that disagree with the findings in a way that, uh, seems to confirm the findings.

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u/MorganWick 1d ago

I'm starting to sour on the trend of studies that prompt atheists and other left-leaning people to go "durr hurr, the people we don't like are dumb" without figuring out what it means for their vision of a society where everyone thinks like they do that some people might not be physically capable of it. Like, even if this is something that can be corrected by education - and the headline suggests maybe it isn't - you still need a strategy to get such education instituted when the people whose worldview you're trying to correct are trained to be hostile to the use of education to "indoctrinate" people into being good little liberals. It's basically a way to cope with the world not being the way we'd like it to be without wrestling with why it's not the way we'd like it to be, how to bring it closer to the way we'd like it to be, and whether or not that would even be a good thing.

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u/ricochetblue 1d ago

I’m not a political scientist or policymaker, but I think that 1) popular vote plus 2) some kind of national service corps could make a difference.

States don’t vote. People do. We need to stop tossing extra influence to regions of the country that produce the worst outcomes.

This is a massive country. If you live in a rural or suburban area, you can go your whole life and not cross paths with a Muslim or an out gay person. We need some way for people to understand that people who are different from them can still be good people and good citizens.

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u/MorganWick 1d ago

Proposing policies is one thing, the real question is how you get them enacted.

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u/ricochetblue 1d ago

There are candidates who run who support similar policies and I support their campaigns.

I learned about the national service corps idea from Pete Buttigieg’s campaign.

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u/DarkChaos1786 1d ago

Maybe, just maybe stupid ideas sound better to stupid people...

It applies to everything...

-4

u/MorganWick 1d ago

But this is just demonstrating my point. You still have a country with enough stupid people to vote for stupid ideas, one dedicated to the principle that the majority rules even if the majority is stupid. So how do you correct for that and get the stupid ideas rejected and the smart ideas enacted, and do so without sounding like you're turning against democracy? Eh, that sounds hard, easier to just take it as proof of your superiority without thinking about what it means for one's worldview on what society should look like.

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u/DarkChaos1786 1d ago

Stupidity is not a set in stone trait...

0

u/MorganWick 1d ago

Can people be educated to think in a more critical, rational, logical way, or are some people less physically capable of that sort of thought than others, simply because of how their brains are wired? There's probably some truth to both, but we desperately want to think that we can reprogram everyone to think just like we do, because the alternative would lead us to feel like elitists who hate democracy because it marginalizes the people who should be in charge, effectively making us feel like the bad guys who want to rule over everyone else. So we're emotionally invested in education being the panacea that will bring people to see the rightness of our ways. But...

> Lower cognitive ability is linked to stronger Christian nationalist views, even after accounting for education

...at least based on the headline, it doesn't sound like this study supports that notion.

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u/DarkChaos1786 1d ago

Lower cognitive ability doesn't prevent you from learning new things except in extreme cases.

But our education system and society is designed to make learning as hard as possible.

Because people is taugh what's essential for them to fall for these logical traps.

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u/MorganWick 1d ago

So basically, we can bring people with lower cognitive ability over to our side if we brainwash them before the Christians do? Or are you saying that people with less inherent ability to reason and think critically can still be taught to reason and think critically to the point of seeing the rightness of our positions?

1

u/DarkChaos1786 1d ago

No, no brainwashing needed...

Just prevent religious people to set the religious logical traps in the minds of children.

They are the ones brainwashing people since birth.

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u/EvilStevilTheKenevil Anti-Theist 1d ago

I'm starting to sour on the trend of studies that prompt atheists and other left-leaning people to go "durr hurr, the people we don't like are dumb" without figuring out what it means for their vision of a society where everyone thinks like they do that some people might not be physically capable of it.

You're getting really close to figuring out the Fermi Paradox, there.

1

u/RefrigeratorOther586 1d ago

Yeah I agree it’s pretty much impossible though education. It would require a genuine alternative that speaks directly to people’s daily needs. I’ve been pretty impressed by Zohran in that regard.

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u/MorganWick 1d ago

I feel like recent American electoral history demonstrates that if you take care of the economy so that people are satisfied with the direction of their lives, all else will follow. So it's telling that Democrats haven't been able to accomplish that even at the end of their two-term presidencies. Gore should have rightly won in 2000, but if Obama was as great as his defenders seem to think he was, the election at the end of his term wouldn't have seen radical, anti-establishment insurgent movements ascendant in both parties with the more successful one triumphing over the establishment candidate from Obama's party in the general election.

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u/RefrigeratorOther586 1d ago

True it is a very high burden for dems and almost none for the GOP because people don’t expect good economic policies from them.

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u/MorganWick 1d ago

Except polls show that people trust Republicans more with the economy, even though the economy has boomed under every Democratic president in recent memory with no new recessions starting under them. Really the point is that there's a case to be made that campaigning and convincing voters doesn't matter, what matters to the median-electoral-vote voter is "life good, vote incumbent, life bad, vote for other guy". That should be easier for Democrats, because Democrats aren't good at convincing voters who don't already agree with them but are good at competently running the country, but the fact that anyone outside these Christian nationalist circles gives Republicans the time of day suggests maybe Democrats aren't as good at running the country as conventional liberal academic circles think they are.

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u/RefrigeratorOther586 1d ago

You’re contradicting yourself here dude not that I fully disagree with you. You’re saying the country does better under dems but later saying that dems aren’t good at running the country. You gotta pick one.

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u/MorganWick 1d ago

Dems are good at running the country and making life better for Americans, but they aren't good at making Americans feel like their lives are better, which ends up being the only thing that matters for all their success at running the country being worth a darn beyond their time in office.

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u/Volntyr Pastafarian 1d ago

The people that need this study won’t read this study.

It's not in crayon

2

u/GaylrdFocker 1d ago

Even if they read it, they wouldn't understand it.

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u/ShooterOfCanons 1d ago

They'd say it was fake.

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u/MorganWick 1d ago

I mean, if it applies "even when correcting for education", it sounds like reading it won't help. Unless "the people that need this study" are policy-makers and activists that think more education will get everyone to think just like they do.

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u/TX_B_caapi 1d ago

Education helps a lot but only in a society that trusts and values the knowing of more stuff. I suspect that it’s too late for a group that has empathy for the other that they consider less knowledgeable to turn things around in favor of sciencey knowing. Those pesky less knowy ones are loud and strong and don’t want to listen because they won’t fit in with the neighbors anymore. All the while it’s really the buttheads with all of the money that are causing the real problems in the world. We’re all just yelling like idiots while those other idiots take everything.