May 16, 2006

IQ and Voting

by Liberty and Power

Do you remember when Bush was elected to his second term that the claim was made by lots and lots of people that the average IQ of residents of the red states--that is, those that went for Bush--were lower than the average IQ of residents of the blue states? That claim was repeated all over the place, including in respectable venues like The Economist (although The Economist later retracted the claim, based, as it said it was, on insufficient evidence.) One colleague of mine printed out the entire chart listing the average IQs of all the states, along with who they voted for, and posted it on her office door.

According to Steve Sailer (and others), the whole story is a hoax. On a related topic, Sailer claims there is evidence that George Bush's IQ might actually be a point or two higher than John Kerry's. Kerry's reaction when he was asked by Tom Brokaw about that?"I must have been drinking the night before I took that military aptitude test."

[Cross-posted at Proportional Belief.]

More Comments:

David Emanuel Andersson - 5/17/2006

Does anyone still believe in IQ tests? I remember taking three Internet IQ tests for fun, once with maximum concentration, once with average concentration, and once while trying to think about something else. You guessed it: the results were all over the place. What do I want to say by this? That concentration habits may be more related to learning habits and personal history than any innate "intelligence."

Protagoras - 5/16/2006

Thanks, Roderick. Sorry about the flub. I've changed it in the original post.

Sudha Shenoy - 5/16/2006

Red-necks vs Blue-bloods? The revolting, smelly masses vs their -- intellectual & moral -- superiors, the natural aristocracy?

Roderick T. Long - 5/16/2006

> that the average IQ of
> residents of the blue states--
> that is, those that went for
> Bush--were lower than the average
> IQ of residents of the red states

It was the red states, not the blue states, that went for Bush.