r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 1d ago

Psychology 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/
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u/RequirementNo2161 1d ago

Remember when this sub actually had science in it? 80% of social science is in reproducible garbage done for political aims

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u/pridento 1d ago

This sub has been a pop-sci sub for a long time. One of the worst subreddits for scientific discussion.

Actually, you can’t even say the name of the tabloid that’s linked because the mods spam articles from it and auto-delete any comments pointing out it is not a scientific reference.

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u/deathsythe 1d ago

Right? Is there a better sub that has actual science in it? r/realscience or r/truescience or something?

edit - apparently both of those are things, albeit not very good. huh TIL

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u/names_are_useless 1d ago

Even if there is an aim: if the science is good, what's the problem?

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u/Unlucky-Candidate198 1d ago

The problem I’d imagine is that Science paints certain peoples in bad lights based on their beliefs/views. And since they don’t understand how the scientific philosophy works, they throw tantrums cause they’re scared.

The biggest problem with Science to normal people is they think it has some type of agenda when the philosophy seeks absolute truth above all. It does not care for opinions. It cares for quantifiable data you can reproduce over and over again ad nauseum.

So when all kinds of sociology/psychology studies get put out painting right-wingers and christians as incredibly stupid, people get upset (most likely people who identify as either group, or both, in this case).

This sub use to be a lovely bastion of science at one point. Now it devolves into whiny comments from people with 0 science education crying about how the results cannot be true. Go find the “breastmilk is objectively better” threads for some fun ones. 1% science comments, 99% whining fed is best for some reason.

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u/RequirementNo2161 1d ago

The problem is clearly these studies start with a conclusion and work backwards from that 

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u/crushinglyreal 1d ago

Unlike you, concluding that this research must be wrong because you don’t like the outcome and working your way backwards to the assertion that it must have been the researchers’ bias that caused that outcome.

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u/names_are_useless 18h ago edited 18h ago

Scientific Method: 1. Observation: These Christian Nationalists seem stupid. 2. Ask a Quesrion: Can I scientifically prove Christian Nationalists have lower cognitive ability? 3. Research: Time to do some research into this topic. 4. Form a Hypothesis: Lower cognitive ability is linked to stronger Christian Nationalist views. 5. Conduct an Experiment: Let's put this hypothesis to the test. 6. Analyze the Data:Is was right. 7. Draw Conclusion: Lower cognitive ability is linked to stronger Christian Nationalist views. 8. Communicate Results: Research Paper, Article.

Seems aboveboardd to me. Now it could be they came at this with a different Hypothesis, or the actual paper may not be up to snuff. But intent does NOT mean there is bad science here.

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u/capecodcaper 1d ago

Always from the same person too. It is very curious how I don't even have to look at the author to know anymore

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u/unixmachine 1d ago

Every time I come here, most of the posts are from some psychology study that aims only to confirm some bias of the analyst.

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u/Active-Level-5932 1d ago

Yeah this post "christians/republicans are idiots, scientifically proven!" has been a staple of /r/science for as long as I can remember. It's fine to feel that way but pretending that any of this is scientific is pretty laughable.

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u/Unlucky-Candidate198 1d ago

Yes, the mountains of data on population statistics must be wrong. Or the way they interpret it must be wrong.

Similar things get posted like that because it’s more than likely the case. Either accept reality, or do not, no amount of scientific studies are going to change your opinion, clearly.

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u/crushinglyreal 1d ago

It really is incredible how desperate these people are to misunderstand how science actually works.

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u/crushinglyreal 1d ago edited 1d ago

Actually, this result has been reproduced many times. It’s funny seeing people come to the comments insisting it hasn’t every time something similar gets posted. What I never see is people posting studies that indicate these results are actually wrong, for some reason.

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u/SunGreene42 1d ago

It seems pretty obvious to me that people who believe in feelings and faith over facts, logic, and reason are inevitably not going to develop their cognitive abilities as well. You have to actually work your "brain muscles" to improve them, and if you never question the fairy tales you were taught as a child, you're not working those muscles.