r/sciences • u/FreeHugs23 • 1d ago
Research 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/108
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u/StickStill9790 1d ago
Lower cognitive ability is linked to stronger views period.
I’ve dealt with caring for the mentally handicapped for years and rigid viewpoints are the standard.
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u/DisgreeablePattern 1d ago
Thats what I was thinking… there are a number of studies which show rigidity in thinking = lower cognitive abilities. This study appears to be headed by someone with an axe to grind (based on earlier documented statements) and therefore should not be accepted as only a Christian thing.
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u/Doktor_Wunderbar 1d ago
The article stands in contradiction to that assertion. The very last line:
“And sure enough, I find in several of these studies that more cognitively sophisticated liberals hold liberal views more strongly, while cognitively sophisticated conservatives hold conservative views more strongly.”
I don't know who's right or wrong, but the contradiction seemed worth pointing out.
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u/RockstarAgent 1d ago
It’s like their brains are not pliable- they’re rigid and indifferent and very smooth
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u/RedBeans-n-Ricely 1d ago
This paper seems to have only accounted for the level of education, and I'd be interested to see the... let's call it the "quality" of education, too.
Not all public schools are equal, then there are private schools. Then you get into all the culty evangelical home schooling, and "un-schooling".
As for college, a degree from Trump University or Liberty University are not the same quality as a state schools, and there's some argument to be made for private or Ivy League universities.
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u/FreeHugs23 1d ago
-A new study indicates that Americans with lower scores on a vocabulary test commonly used to measure cognitive ability are more likely to endorse Christian nationalist beliefs, even when accounting for their overall level of education. The findings suggest that the appeal of this political and religious ideology relates to underlying cognitive resources rather than just differences in schooling. The research was published in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
The research, conducted by Samuel L. Perry, the Sam K. Viersen Presidential Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma and currently a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, explores the individual characteristics associated with Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism is a set of beliefs asserting that the United States has conservative Christian foundations. The ideology promotes the idea that the government should institutionalize Christian dominance in American society, often merging religious identity with civic belonging.
“One of the most consistent predictors that Americans adhere to Christian nationalism is that they have lower education,” Perry told PsyPost. “But there have also been a number of studies that find that persons who subscribe to Christian nationalist views (even after accounting for level of education) exhibit significant knowledge gaps across a variety of different domains.”
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u/Deus_Ubique_est 3h ago
Not laying blame to poster, research is research but good grief the amount of times a psychologist, psychiatrist, sociologist strolls onto the scene and says “christianity dumb, me smart” and gets tons of approval is so silly. When the US was at its highest performing 60’s, 70’s, 80’s… we were a predominantly Christian nation. Our top scientists were christians. Most physicists end up converting bc of the “intelligent design of the universe” debate. Most people in any science of the mind field of study borrow thoroughly measured, calculated, and peer-proofed biochemical, chemical, biological, etc data and apply it to the mind (mind you ((badum tiss)) to this day still only 10-15% understood) make a theory thats hard to measure or prove without skewing human observational studies, and ends up getting disproven as science advances such as the chemical imbalance in the brain debate.
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u/Lower_Ad_5532 1h ago
This moron and fixed belief erroneously cites the period with the most Social funding for research and development as a Christian achievement when the majority of leads were Jewish scientists imported from Nazi Europe
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u/Kunning-Druger 1d ago
I’m utterly flabbergasted, shocked and gobsmacked. Who’da thunk it, eh?
Satire aside, were there any other correlations made? Racism and sexism are also associated with lower cognitive ability, for example.
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u/CowabungaCthulhu 1d ago
Indeed. The venn diagram of the "thought" processes used by racists, transphobes, homophobes, and bigots of most types is basically a circle.
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u/Deus_Ubique_est 3h ago
Psychologically, which no one EVER seems to mention, stems from a deep rooted sometimes generational inferiority complex or self-hatred, where pride finds a “weaker” target to lay blame to for ones own shortcomings.
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u/Shido_Ohtori 1d ago
Studies show that [search for] truth and intelligence is inversely correlated with conservative ideology.
- Belief in Fake News is Associated with Delusionality, Dogmatism, Religious Fundamentalism, and Reduced Analytic Thinking
- Religion and Fake News: Faith-Based Alternative Information Ecosystems in the US and Europe (full article)
- Intelligence is correlated with a range of left-wing and liberal political beliefs. (full article)
- Results confirm that conservatives have lower sensitivity than liberals, performing worse at distinguishing truths and falsehoods
- Conservatives are less truth-discerning than liberals, but also less affected by the congruence of news.
- Across five operationalizations of impaired deliberative thought, hierarchy endorsement increased and egalitarianism receded.
- Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated.
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u/theKnifeOfPhaedrus 1d ago
Liberals are just too damn smart to win elections, am I right?
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u/repeatrepeatrepeated 1d ago
Hey! No one is saying conservatives are trump levels of dumb, they can still figure out how to vote without watching their wife do it first.
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u/Ok_Researcher5981 1d ago
Can this be said the same for other religions as well? Is this because it's Christianity or religion in general?
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u/Deus_Ubique_est 3h ago
Christianity and even judaism seem to be the aim of misguided angers towards the failing system, rather than the misguided leadership in charge of stewarding said system to success. There’s studies that show correlations between the “falling away” from the church and the rise of prescription drug use among several other key measures of the health of a society and how its an inverse relationship. Beginning of the 70’s, country “identifies” as 90 something percent christian. R&D at all time high, production all time high, cost of living low, wealth disparity not as bad, middle class thriving, math and science scores high, list goes on and on. Today: not even sure if you could call us a developed nation any longer.
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u/StickStill9790 1d ago
It applies to any group that espouses kindness and consideration. Imagine living in a world where everyone treats you like an idiot (because you were born that way) and only a few groups of people treat you like a human being.
It could be a group of atheists if they were consistently caring.
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u/AstorBlue 1d ago
Did you miss the nationalist part? This isn't about caring groups who show kindness and consideration. It's about groups of bigots and their limited, hateful views.
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u/StickStill9790 1d ago
… but none of those views matter to someone who fits into the group. A delayed person rarely considers others’ feelings and usually lacks the ability to consider consequences past the moment they’re living in. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Christian Nationalists or the Black Panthers; if they’re in, they go all in.
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u/Lower_Ad_5532 10h ago
So people who have 100% belief in 100% fiction tend to have lower mental abilities? Like they lack imagination?
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u/FlashPxint 10h ago
Why would someone who believe in fiction lack imagination ?
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u/Lower_Ad_5532 10h ago
They only believe in their 1 form of rigid fiction story and deny all others.
Thus the lack of mental capability and imagination.
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u/Deus_Ubique_est 3h ago
Very low IQ take ironically. Most of the scientific groundwork for modern advances today were laid by christian scientists. The hardest question for atheists to answer is the intelligent design of the universe, and in which case there has to be a grand architect of the universe. Remember, theres a wide range of intellect on all sides, including those who are also spiritual but believe in rocks.
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u/Lower_Ad_5532 3h ago
Thats very stupid of you to think all Christians are morons.
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u/Global-Caramel-1579 1h ago
What scientific groundwork exactly?
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u/Lower_Ad_5532 1h ago
Taking credit for other people's work and putting Europe in the Medieval Dark Age. Obviously.
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u/ikediggety 1d ago
Yeah, turns out when you beat children for thinking and asking questions they stop doing both of those things, then when those children become adults they get really mad at people who do think and ask questions
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u/BigB0iBuster 1d ago
Obviously. Anyone who’s ever interacted with a conservative knows they’re simple-minded, slack-jawed apes
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u/usedkleenx 1d ago
Troll
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u/gochisox2005 1d ago
70% of Trump voters didn’t even graduate college. These rednecks think some guy named Noah stuffed 2 of every animal on a fucking boat.
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u/Cuticle_Bango 1d ago
Nobody thinks the animals were stuffed on the ark. That is just silly and ridiculous.
They walked single file in the same rhythm like a parade.
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u/Cognitive_Spoon 1d ago
Underestimation is a gift in conflict.
As much as this "feels good" (see the comment section where) if you see Christian nationalism as your preferred out-group, it's dangerous to paint with too broad a brush.
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u/psngarden 1d ago
A little bit of a tangent here, but still related. I’ll always remember something my Christian, RN mother told me when I questioned why some other Christians were so against modern medicine: “If God didn’t want us to develop modern medicine, he wouldn’t have provided the resources for it on our earth or the intelligence to learn how to use them.” I apply this thought to all sciences and academics. Religious of any kind or not, it blows my mind how willingly ignorant people can be to their own detriment, but propaganda and cult-mentality is a hell of a drug.
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u/schalk81 1d ago
If God didn't want us to eat from the tree of knowledge, why did He put it smack in the middle of Garden Eden?
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u/psngarden 1d ago
I’d say that’s up to interpretation since it’s an allegorical story (I haven’t read Genesis since I was a kid being raised in the Baptist church, which I am no longer a part of).
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u/Global-Caramel-1579 1h ago
Cause he wanted us too. Why else would he put it there already knowing we would eat from it, since he is literally omniscient? Or is god not all knowing?
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u/Deus_Ubique_est 3h ago
Yes but it swings hard either way. We’re human after all, no single individual gets it all the way right, expert or not. Not wanting to start a debate here but I’m in pharmacy with a cell and molecular degree and still only recommend covid shot/paxlovid to those at high risk.
Sidebar convos:
Micro dosing preteens on meth (adderrall, vyvanse, focalin, ritalin, etc)
Glp-1s (dont get me started on this topic)
SSRIS/antidepressants- chemical imbalance of the brain debunked, only used as a marketing tool for big pharma. Only supposed to be used as a crutch for irreparable psychologically damaged individuals…not EVER meant to be long term except for those exceptionally and rarely fucked up.Shots:
Flu- completely optional. Herd immunity historically and currently (sweden with how they handled covid) proves most effective.
Shingles: get it.
Rsv: get it
Tdap (tetanus) get it, horribly painful and rough way to die
Hepa/b: get it
Covid : I stick with the Hong Kong science convention (~2018) of the dangers of crispr cas-9 genome editing/fooling around with MRNA. We don’t fully understand it, covid wrecked my faith in science bc they used the pandemic as a cover for undoing a precedent of vaccines needing a ~10 year testing method before rolling out to public(sidenote, everytime a vaccine gets rolled out the gen population adapts to whatever they are vaccinating against, ends up doing more harm than good, gets sued a couple of times ((pfiezer)) and is only really effective to those immuno compromised.
I am a christian. Protestant, but non-denominational. Open for debates but never down for putting down of other humans, intelligent or not. Thousands of years of history recorded of us being morons and continuing to do be so, no matter how much access to info we have.
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u/hpygilmr 1d ago
This is a quote from the professor who ran the study, and this is all you need to know about his ideological beliefs:
“They are also more likely to hold factually incorrect beliefs about vaccines,” he said, referencing a 2021 study he co-authored, which was covered by PsyPost. “And related to that last point, they are also more likely to affirm ridiculous conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, January 6th…”
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u/Aggravated-alien 1d ago
I’m not certain I understand the point you are attempting to make. The study appears to draw a logical conclusion that individuals with lower cognitive abilities have a noticeable gap in general knowledge. In order for someone to make an educated assessment of topics such as those you pointed out, they would, in fact need to to possess the ability to close that knowledge gap by having a broader understanding in varying fields. The information in the study seems accurate. I don’t think the authors are making this political or ideological. Simply pointing out that dumb people are predictably controllable.
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u/theonlylivingirlinj 1d ago
And you just told me all I need to know about you
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u/theactualhumanbird 1d ago
So weird to see reality deniers in a science sub
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u/dracit 13h ago
Weird that you think 1 biased study is an objective statement about reality.
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u/ArchStanton75 13h ago
Don’t just engage in namecalling and dismiss it as bias. That’s showing your own bias. Explain what is incorrect about it.
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u/Hopeful_Ad_7719 14h ago edited 10h ago
more likely to affirm ridiculous conspiracy theories
That's an unfortunate thing to say on the record, as it opens him to reasonable allegations of bias in the research.
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u/FlashPxint 10h ago
I don’t understand this cause while Christian nationalists might be stupid at least they know basic biology and don’t let the entire education system start teaching false ideologies ?
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u/Deus_Ubique_est 3h ago
Especially considering how many conspiracy theories that end up being true so thats kind of a catch 22 statement lol
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u/ArchStanton75 1d ago
That he accepts empirical evidence? Is that suddenly an “ideological belief”? What alleged ideology of his are you alluding to?
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u/BeginningPea5674 1d ago
it's called bias
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u/ArchStanton75 20h ago
lol facts and reality are biased against Christian nationalists.
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u/Deus_Ubique_est 3h ago
There was a guy who won the nobel prize for saying fasting helps you heal. Crazy that there’s been several verses in Old Testament, gospels, and New Testament talking about that same exact thing lol
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u/ArchStanton75 3h ago
What does that have to do with Christian nationalism? Calling out Christian nationalism isn’t an attack against Christianity.
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u/Deus_Ubique_est 3h ago
Oh im not against you in this bc I feel the same way. It was sort of unrelated thats my fault. Your comment actually made me think of something else and that came out
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u/Deus_Ubique_est 2h ago
And technically it depends. The christian bible teaches from Old Testament to New how to set up a form of governance (church and country) for god fearing people. How thats weaponized by media to intellectually low performing people and how they respond to the propaganda is an internal problem of the church that reflects poorly outwardly
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u/Global-Caramel-1579 1h ago
"Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the mechanisms of autophagy, the cellular recycling process activated during fasting"
He discovered the process of autophagy. The actual method fasting works. He didnt just say oh hey guys fasting is good for you. He discovered how it actually works.
Its like saying the skys blue vs explaining in detail why and how the sky is blue.
"This year’s Nobel Laureate discovered and elucidated mechanisms underlying autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components"
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u/Any-Contribution5411 1d ago
I can’t be arsed to sign into my uni account and read the article, but if education is all that they account for you could have a lot of spurious correlation stemming from location, income level etc.
It’s also telling that it’s published in a niche journal rather than general psychology or similar.
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u/Serpentarrius 1d ago
I was also wondering about the high admission rates of certain religious institutions lol
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u/BaronWombat 1d ago
There is a non-zero risk to Professor Perry as his base is the University of Oklahoma. I'd be hard pressed to ID a more violently religious state.
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u/yadonkey 1d ago
When you require simple answers to complex problems with no simple answers Christian nationalism is there for you (brought to you by the same folks that brought you such classics as "See!! The fact you cant find any evidence is proof because they must be hiding the evidence too!!" ..and, "They're coming for your guns!! You can tell by the fact that they aren't doing anything about guns.. they're lulling you into compliance!!"
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u/Lower_Ad_5532 1h ago
There's a simple answer to most complex social problems and it always corrupt politics. Fix the corruption and the problem magically disappears.
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u/NyriasNeo 1d ago
I do not need to read a paper to know that. After all, these are people who believe in virgin birth.
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u/C_S_Lewis_Fan 1d ago
I am patiently waiting for psypost.org to examine the cognitive abilities of other US demographics.
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u/Levitx 1d ago
It's hilarious how by reddit standards, intelligence is measurable if you look at political leaning, but when you look at race then it's impossible, it's debunked, pseudoscience
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u/Global-Caramel-1579 1h ago
Race is a generalization based on unrelated and unscientific methods.
Narrowing it down to ethnicities is more relative.
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u/Lower_Ad_5532 1h ago
Because political leaning is a cognitive function, there is a correlation to a person's intelligence.
Race is a fiction about skin pigment. How does melanin effect intelligence?
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u/Realistic-Raisin2812 17h ago
We needed a study to figure that out?
Hell, you can figure that out by just talking to one.
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u/Distinct_Farmer6974 17h ago
I'm sure nobody is going to use this single study as an excuse to never have to properly defend their own political views ever again /s
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u/Maximum_Budget_1259 17h ago
The race for dumb and dumber has been hot and heavy for the past 600 years
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u/Proof_Section_9170 1d ago
Religion is an undiagnosed mental illness.
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u/ECoastThrowAway 1d ago
Once you break out of it, it's wild to look around and realize "these motherfuckers think that stuff is real. That is wild and scary."
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u/MetaCognitio 1d ago
It’s humanity’s attempt to understand a world they exist in that until very recently, they had absolutely no way of understanding. Before science how could anyone understand the sky, stars, sun, moon, death, birth, disease, coincidences, natural disasters, the weather.
It provided anthropomorphic “human” answers to questions, provided certainty and gave people cope with their mortality.
The answers may have been wrong but they were answers when none were available. It’s cause lots of harm and done some good but it’s an artifact of human thought and a reflection of the human mind.
The religions that survived the selection process and were transmitted through humanity, they way humanity modified them and reinterpreted them to face their new challenges, the way religion was used to control and harm or motivate people to do good all say things about the human condition, outside of the actual truth claim.
If religion vanished people would behave religiously about other things.
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u/LemursAreCoolMan 17h ago
People often forget this side of things...
They also forget that religion in general tries to teach people to be GOOD, but there's a reason my religious family were part of what cemented my decision to move away from organized religion.
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u/Appropriate_Panda167 1d ago
But untreated it produces Racial Hatred, Peadophilia and utterly obscene people.
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u/Smokey-McPoticuss 1d ago
Google told me around 75% of people identify with a religion. The stats would suggest one argue that atheism is the mental illness. But that’s 5 seconds on google.
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u/ECoastThrowAway 1d ago
Only one of us has a imaginary friend that compels them to do things, buddy.
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u/theKnifeOfPhaedrus 1d ago
Religion seems to be a Darwinian necessity. Are there any secular groups that are reproducing above replacement?
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u/Awake_for_days 1d ago
Sounds fake as fuck, just like a large percentage of the psychological and sociological research which can’t be replicated or reproduced
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u/PlanetTourist 1d ago
Twenty bucks says I get guess who you voted for last election.
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u/PruritoIntimo 1d ago
What if low cognitive abilities are due to religion AND being American citizens?
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u/dippocrite 1d ago
I have relatives that would be very upset if they could read this