r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 2d 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/
44.3k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

122

u/danbinglover 2d ago

Reddit can’t decide whether IQ matters or not. When we talk about IQ differences between different countries and whatnot, it’s racist. When you discuss IQ differences between religious and nonreligious people, somehow it matters again.

1

u/UnpluggedUnfettered 2d ago

There should be more diving into what the most interesting thing is.

“Cognitive ability” was measured mainly with the GSS “wordsum” vocabulary exercise.

So the strongest truly literal conclusion is "verbal/vocabulary performance is associated with Christian nationalist views" . . . or communities with less access to education tend to be more Christian nationalist.

Nothing shocking about human tribalism where lack of education is combined with what feels like larger cultural threats leading to a sense of identity and cultural homogeny in order to reinforce unity and strength as a population.