Society/Culture Why do less intelligent people gravitate to conservative/right wing ideology.

[Mofra]

The Daily Mail article reports upon a study by Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. (another Canadian Academic Psychologist but without a youtube presence). He looked at data from 2 UK studies testing child development. The subjects were
(a) 4,267 boys and 4,537 girls born in 1958;
(b) 3,412 boys and 3,658 girls born in 1970.

The tests were of
(c) verbal and non verbal intelligence; and
(d) cognitive abilities (number recall, shape-drawing tasks, defining words and identifying patterns and similarities among words).

In both surveys, 23 years later, the same groups were asked to answer a series of questions about traditions, authority and attitudes toward other races. Hodson then postulated a definition of conservatism which is undefined but looks to be based upon attitudes towards Authority and other races and concluded that low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservtive ideologies.

I’d very cautious about accepting the conclusions drawn by Grin and his gaggle of applauders from the article helpfully posted by Mofra

So would I.

Here's a meta-analysis that's far more wide ranging.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/55893129.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiZksKNiq38AhWmwjgGHVyFAdQQFnoECC0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw2xHhvNmp4MW8yHxMsywA_c

There is a significant body of work on the subject. Assuming the entire concept is based off a single study is folly.

 

[Mofra]

Trying to counter the OP by posting a silly meme isn't quite the flex you may think it is.

 

[Baggins15]

Not sure it's entirely due to intelligence (or lack of). Most people are simply too preoccupied with work, study, family, paying bills/rent, self-care and other aspects of daily life to fret about politics or think critically about big issues. It's all an easy distraction for the masses - many don't do their homework on these things and form carefully-considered opinions, and so we're continually suckered into believing sensationalist headlines, tweets, soundbites etc. that Murdoch media and co. spew forth for shock value. I think a lack of social responsibility comes into it too - people increasingly have a "**** you, got mine" attitude and just don't care about or see how their choices (including at the ballot box) impact others, including the conservative elite.

The answer is probably more complicated and deeply rooted in psychology than we'd like to believe IMO.

 

[jb40]

Is this supposed to be a commentary of all Labor/Democrat voters? Etc. Ridiculous, if so.

And do conservative/right wing leaning people actually believe Trump is anti establishment?

This is the same man who outsourced 200k jobs, gave Wall Street a 1.7 trillion dollar tax cut, and destroyed the consumer financial protection bureau who gave back 12 billion to Americans who were screwed over by corporate fraud. Trump is the ultimate establishment cuck, he’s in the same big club George Carlin talked about who doesn’t give a s**t about working class people.

And DeSantis is no better. So I would say those who enthusiastically support either of those two men are as sheep like as any of these hyper left activists the meme is describing who might exist as 1-2% of the population at most.

im not saying the right are much better. they at least know something is wrong with the world. the left just take the self righteous moral high ground and are to busy being cucked by the right to realize what is going on

you know wall street donate to mostly the democrats whilst your being cucked

it was the democrats who sold up and sent everything to china like the Labor party in Australia
it was the democrats that changed the currency to the fiat ponzy money just like labor in Australia

you struggle to understand the basicas

 

[sdfc]

im not saying the right are much better. they at least know something is wrong with the world. the left just take the self righteous moral high ground and are to busy being cucked by the right to realize what is going on

you know wall street donate to mostly the democrats whilst your being cucked

it was the democrats who sold up and sent everything to china like the Labor party in Australia
it was the democrats that changed the currency to the fiat ponzy money just like labor in Australia

you struggle to understand the basicas

Can you walk me through this?

 

[Cap]

Can you walk me through this?

No.

It's a made up view to align to political view.

It's just words used to make themselves feel better.

 

[sdfc]

No.

It's a made up view to align to political view.

It's just words used to make themselves feel better.

That's disappointing. I thought he was an expert.

 

[Cap]

That's disappointing. I thought he was an expert.

I mean he thinks he's an expert, so there is that

 

[Chief]

leftism is becoming more popular yet society becomes more stupid as the years progress on.

 

[Grin]

No.

It's a made up view to align to political view.

It's just words used to make themselves feel better.

He's making a valuable contribution to this thread.
He's exactly who this thread is about, and I appreciate his insights.

 

[Todman]

Maybe because the intellectuals know that they are the smartest people in the room and demand a seat at the top table. And because they are so smart that they are obligated to decide/force policies onto the dumb ones. That make them authoritarian by nature as thus they sit on the left side of the political divide.

 

[Ghost Patrol]

Maybe because the intellectuals know that they are the smartest people in the room and demand a seat at the top table. And because they are so smart that they are obligated to decide/force policies onto the dumb ones. That make them authoritarian by nature as thus they sit on the left side of the political divide.

Did you think of that zinger all by yourself?

 

[Gethelred]

Maybe because the intellectuals know that they are the smartest people in the room and demand a seat at the top table. And because they are so smart that they are obligated to decide/force policies onto the dumb ones. That make them authoritarian by nature as thus they sit on the left side of the political divide.

This is a very, very silly post.

 

[dumb]

Not sure it's entirely due to intelligence (or lack of). Most people are simply too preoccupied with work, study, family, paying bills/rent, self-care and other aspects of daily life to fret about politics or think critically about big issues. It's all an easy distraction for the masses - many don't do their homework on these things and form carefully-considered opinions, and so we're continually suckered into believing sensationalist headlines, tweets, soundbites etc. that Murdoch media and co. spew forth for shock value. I think a lack of social responsibility comes into it too - people increasingly have a "* you, got mine" attitude and just don't care about or see how their choices (including at the ballot box) impact others, including the conservative elite.

The answer is probably more complicated and deeply rooted in psychology than we'd like to believe IMO.

i was thinking similar reading through the thread. why does anyone gravitate toward their chosen ideology? is it a path of least resistance, what are the motivations that have lead people to where they are, the media landscape.
from there, i suppose you could build an argument about the stereotypical properties of intelligence like curiousity. i would think that an inherent curiousity would manifest regardless of the situations in someone's life. but it may not equate to anything in a polling booth because their local member is a twat or there are other local practicalities. people need to be curious enough to step beyond the prevailing ideology that they grew up with whatever it is.
it can take a lot of effort and time for some to navigate away from ol' rupe.

as shown by some polling surprises, some voters have enough nous to be judicious in who they share their less socially acceptable ideologies with. there' may be something to be considered about how passionate they are.

 

[jb40]

all you have to do is look at history and society to see how leftism always fails!
then all you have to do is look at the hard core leftists and not hard to see why

 

[Ghost Patrol]

all you have to do is look at history and society to see how leftism always fails!
then all you have to do is look at the hard core leftists and not hard to see why

Why do you gravitate to conservative/right wing ideology?

Do you think Donald Trump and Clive Palmer are more attractive than the person you just posted a picture of?

 

[jb40]

Why do you gravitate to conservative/right wing ideology?

Do you think Donald Trump and Clive Palmer are more attractive than the person you just posted a picture of?

billionaires making economic decisions as oppose to life long politicians? biden, Albo and the hack Bowen who idolises the greatest dud of a treasurer Keating the man who claims to be a friend of the ausyralian worker but sold out assets and jobs to over seas and destroyed industry

you mean those so called evil dud conservatives like scomo, turnball who legalized same sex marriage.

the traditional left, stood for freedom, a voice for the people and opposed large multinational and the system of a controlling government not for it!

the left dont even know or realise that they are the useful idiots (stalin and trottsky saying)

 

[Grin]

billionaires making economic decisions as oppose to life long politicians? biden, Albo and the hack Bowen who idolises the greatest dud of a treasurer Keating the man who claims to be a friend of the ausyralian worker but sold out assets and jobs to over seas and destroyed industry

you mean those so called evil dud conservatives like scomo, turnball who legalized same sex marriage.

the traditional left, stood for freedom, a voice for the people and opposed large multinational and the system of a controlling government not for it!

the left dont even know or realise that they are the useful idiots (stalin and trottsky saying)

So regulation is bad? (Except for same sex people)
Freedom’s good? (Except for same sex people)

 

[jb40]

So regulation is bad? (Except for same sex people)
Freedom’s good? (Except for same sex people)

so you understanding
left good
right bad?

marxism is extreme leftism

go and listen to some Yuri Bezmenov on you tube he does some great presentations

T]he useful idiots, the leftists who are idealistically believing in the beauty of the Soviet socialist or Communist or whatever system, when they get disillusioned, they become the worst enemies. That’s why my KGB instructors specifically made the point: never bother with leftists. Forget about these political prostitutes. Aim higher. [...] They serve a purpose only at the stage of destabilization of a nation. For example, your leftists in the United States: all these professors and all these beautiful civil rights defenders. They are instrumental in the process of the subversion only to destabilize a nation. When their job is completed, they are not needed any more. They know too much. Some of them, when they get disillusioned, when they see that Marxist-Leninists come to power—obviously they get offended—they think that they will come to power. That will never happen, of course. They will be lined up against the wall and shot.” ​

Yuri Bezmenov

 

[Grin]

so you understanding
left good
right bad?

marxism is extreme leftism

go and listen to some Yuri Bezmenov on you tube he does some great presentations

T]he useful idiots, the leftists who are idealistically believing in the beauty of the Soviet socialist or Communist or whatever system, when they get disillusioned, they become the worst enemies. That’s why my KGB instructors specifically made the point: never bother with leftists. Forget about these political prostitutes. Aim higher. [...] They serve a purpose only at the stage of destabilization of a nation. For example, your leftists in the United States: all these professors and all these beautiful civil rights defenders. They are instrumental in the process of the subversion only to destabilize a nation. When their job is completed, they are not needed any more. They know too much. Some of them, when they get disillusioned, when they see that Marxist-Leninists come to power—obviously they get offended—they think that they will come to power. That will never happen, of course. They will be lined up against the wall and shot.”​

Yuri Bezmenov

Don’t really get what this has to do with the thread topic but is this something from the 1930s?
Are we still worried about ‘reds under the bed’, and wasn’t that the propaganda Menzies used?

 

[faible]

billionaires making economic decisions as oppose to life long politicians?

This is a really lame meme. Try harder.

 

[the_interloper]

Why do you gravitate to conservative/right wing ideology?

Do you think Donald Trump and Clive Palmer are more attractive than the person you just posted a picture of?

Trump yes, Palmer would be a tossup

 

[Ghost Patrol]

Trump yes, Palmer would be a tossup

Whatever tickles your fancy, I suppose.

 

[Mofra]

Has anyone who uses the word 'leftist' ever made a useful point about... anything?
The term is a useful indicator of someone totally cooked, but that's about it.

 

[jb40]

This is a really lame meme. Try harder.

if Australia was a business it would be broke! lucky we have life long politicians like Albo, chalmers Bowen to save us. there solution spend spend spend spend spend

The debt-to-GDP ratio is the ratio between a country's government debt and its gross domestic product (GDP).


World Economics has upgraded each country's GDP presenting it in Purchasing Power Parity terms with added estimates for the size of the informal economy and adjustments for out-of-date GDP base year data. Using the World Economics GDP Database it is possible to see more realistic debt levels for each country.


Australia's is officially reported as having a debt-to-GDP ratio of 57% by the IMF.


Using the World Economics GDP database, Australia's GDP would be $1,491 billion - 10% larger than official estimates, Australia's debt ratio would be smaller at 51.6%


Australia's data is highlighted in the table below, use the filter and sort order options to allow easy comparison with other countries.

Australia's Debt to GDP Ratio | 2024 | Economic Data | World Economics

Australia

www.worldeconomics.com

 

[jb40]

Don’t really get what this has to do with the thread topic but is this something from the 1930s?
Are we still worried about ‘reds under the bed’, and wasn’t that the propaganda Menzies used?

thank you for admitting you dont understand a thing about the left vs right wing and the title of the thread! no need to feel left out or triggered as most of ther posters on this forum will have little idea despite thinking they do