Neuroscience is unlocking a deeper understanding of how we choose our political affiliations. Here, I provide an insight into how this can help us regain the middle-ground.
That said, I recall a mantra I learned while studying applied behavioral science: 'All anger is rooted in fear.'
I believe that fear mongering by right-wing pols has played a far greater role in Trump's election than low intelligence. It does seem clear that some brains are more prone to being manipulated by fear.
Excellent and I have been saying this for 8 years. There is a great amount of research on authoritarian followers. Dems just don’t learn. They need people to go into the Broverse media armed with a correct way to message to them.
According to Bob Altemeyer, who spent decades studying folks high in authoritarianism:
(1) Authoritarian followers tend to have more problems with critical thinking than the rest of us. They are especially poor at inferences, deductions, and understanding when evidence is or isn't proof of something.
(2) Authoritarian followers tend more than the rest of us to have highly compartmentalized minds, as if they put each fact or idea in its own file, and they never merge files. It won't occur to them that one thing they believe contradicts something else they believe.
(3) Authoritarian followers tend more than the rest of us to have highly compartmentalized minds, as if they put each fact or idea in its own file, and they never merge files. It won't occur to them that one thing they believe contradicts something else they believe. They have double standards towards others' beliefs or conduct vs. their own.
(4) Authoritarian followers tend to be hypocritical. E.g., they may insist their views are protected by free speech but are quick to urge censorship of other's views.
(5) Individuals high in authoritarianism tend to have little self-awareness.
(6) They tend to exhibit a profound ethnocentrism, seeing the world more sharply than the rest of us do in terms of in-groups and out-groups. E.g., they tend to be "highly suspicious of their outgroups but incredibly credulous to the point of self-delusion with their in-groups."
(7) Authoritarians tend to be extremely dogmatic. Dogmatism is their last defense against facts or logic. In my own experience, they also tend to see the world in black-and-white terms, all-or-nothing,
Narcissists don’t care about anything that is not about themselves. They don’t engage in critical thinking because all their thinking is in service of keeping their false self deluded that it is both the perfect hero and an ever-present victim, regardless of the circumstances.
They are not trying to have a reasonable, rational debate to learn something new, or even to learn more about their own perspective, they just want to win and have everything their way, based on their feelings of delusional entitled superiority. This is because they have never actually grown up and are stuck regressed as an emotional toddler.
A lack of empathy for others, which narcissists have, because they just don’t think that anyone but them really exists, means a lack of ‘interconnected’ awareness. They cannot relate to other people as seperate autonomous beings because no one but them is real.
Other people are all just props in their movie - imagine a prop trying to tell the movie star what to do? That is why they don’t get it when they insult & harm you and then are upset when you make a ‘big deal’ out of it and try to hold them accountable for their actions.
They cry like they truly think they are the one who is being unfairly victimised. They think this because they really think anything they do to you is ok because you somehow ‘provoked’ them, by not doing what they wanted. They can break the rules because they are always right, while you need to follow the rules or we will all suffer from some kind of chaos, due to their paranoia. Every projection is a confession, they will not do their own shadow work and need other people & groups, scapegoats, to carry their rejected qualities.
You are nothing to them but a prop, a shiny prop that they desperately must see themselves reflected back to themselves through you - either you as a failure so they can feel better about themselves, or you as someone they feel they gain from because of your perceived high status.
They don’t want to work together, because they only want to dominate. & they will do whatever they need to do to be in the power position. A podcast I listen to The Little Shaman had a great description - they act like the fox but they are the rabbit, driven by intense survival energy to stay deluded from reality, and who they might find themselves to actually be it.
Understanding the trauma that causes narcissism which creates so much suffering and us all working on dealing with our trauma from living under the narcissistic death cult that is colonial capitalism…this is path out, going in and finding out why we let people with what we know are serious emotional/cognitive regression rule over us, who should know better…We keep getting sucker punched by the bullies, again and again, might be time to find out why.
IFS is an amazing lens to understand this all. Betrayal Trauma Theory is about how the more you are dependant on the person who ‘betrays’ you the less able you will be to see it. It is attachment - you need to stay attached to people who are neglectful or abusive to you so you live checked out in denial. Denial is such a foundational part of childhood trauma. I think a lot of the people on the right, because of their already rigid hierarchical family values (based on denial of the trauma they cause), stay with the authoritarianism that feels ‘correct’ for them because they are used to it. And the other powerful lesson from IFS, is knowing that you have protector parts that keep you safe by causing you present day trouble, so you will not feel the pain of your exiled child parts. Protector parts don’t keep you safe from pain. In fact they often cause you different ‘distracting’ pain that is in service to keeping you in the dark about your own childhood trauma. If you have an addiction, you can keep yourself in denial of some other deeper core wound, by battling against yourself, or raging against others.
I have come to understand that when people do anything against their own self-interests, including voting, there is a deeper pain they think will overwhelm them if it comes to the surface of their conscious awareness. They are voting in their self-interests, it is just that this is a part of them that is in control of keeping them in delusion and denial, to stay safely ignorant. Our protector parts and exiled parts are stuck frozen in time and need our help as our triple A self (like soul) to help free them from their pain by unburdening them.
Could it be that there is a correlation between being raised in a highly, fear-based, shame-based religion and/or fear-based, shame-based family robs children of necessary developmental steps and experiences where children are encouraged to be fact discerners, inference drawers, logic appliers, question-askers, etc.? Otherwise, “trauma by [religious or familial] dogma”, as my husband quipped. It certainly isn’t genetic although it is seen to be generational.
What a great and important report! I read that 20% of our country’s citizens are illiterate and 50% are functionally illiterate. No one can learn critical thinking if they can’t understand the premise. I am going to take a tiny step towards improving a child’s chance to read by volunteering to help teach them. Thanks for this report and thanks to Meidus for giving us a safe place.
Please check out getting a Wired For Reading certification. Most of the reading instruction in schools is based on the Whole Language Learning concept, which has not shown good results for the majority of students. Pure phonics instruction, no guessing allowed, is the most effective teaching strategy for 50-70% of students.
Finally good to see someone volunteering versus being paid to help others. Probably one of the better outcomes from hearing how much democrats had to pay for people to endorse their candidates.
However, scientists claiming that in some % of cases cognitive deficits account for susceptibility to right wing extremism will be translated into an overgeneralization that one must be stupid to vote Republican which in turn evokes defensive outrage and doubling down with even greater intensity.
Perhaps it would be more productive to say that the cognitive abilities of a certain % of right wingers fall into a sub-category of the 'multiple intelligence' spectrum ... or some such.
Thanks Gary. No doubt this is what makes reporting on it difficult. Bear in mind that we are talking about a specific group - those being manipulated versus the manipulators.
It must be difficult sorting out organically based cognitive deficits from education shortfalls. For example, if someone has never taken a course in logic she or he might not appreciate that politicians constantly spew logical fallacies. Others have pointed out the role critical thinking plays. Is it low intelligence that makes it difficult for one to identify logical fallacies or think critically or the failure of our education system. Probably both …
Although the evidence has got that far yet, I suspect it is more a set of cognitive functions that develop normally as part of a stable home environment. It is not, I don’t think, related specifically to being clever or not.
Gary, I think you expressed it very well with that last sentence. It's likely both a function of native intelligence and exposure to quality education in any area that builds critical thinking skills (math, for example). I'm an old retired engineer. I've seen a gradual erosion of the quality of K-12 education in this country over my lifetime. This, when overlaid with Dr. Goyle's excellent synopsis of the variation of brain structure and processes across the general population probably has had a very significant impact upon our collective rightward shift. It also correlates well with a now generally accepted theory that we're riding a pendulum with an 80 year period; it takes that long to affect basic, multigenerational changes in things like quality of education and fundamental "institutionsl changes".
Sorry, but in my opinion, logic is not taught through math, it is taught through language which might be then turned into mathematical constructs. If I am incorrect, then why is Logic taught as part of Philosopy and Rhetoric studies and not Maths and Engineering, except indirectly?
You are neglecting those that serve themselves. Often the over educated in areas of arts believe it imbues them with rich scientific awareness. Same goes for the social sciences. Mostly incapable of understanding the policies effects on how things work. Like solar power, agriculture, and energy production.
I wondered, "How would I feel reading this if I was a Republican?". I would not be happy, proving your point.
I think media has a big effect, especially when informative journalism is "pay to play" denying the general population truth. What news program is most likely to be displayed in a customer waiting room? Is it the cheapest? The 4th Estate is now a commodity and profit driven.
I don't think Republicans are solely at fault, though. I've seen incredibly strange and hateful behavior from Democrats, as well. It would be helpful to understand them, too.
I am a libertarian. It's actually sad when scientists lash out at those they disagree with. Often loneliness and belief in an esoteric governments power over oneself is the biggest cause for authoritarianism. Or as most would call Democrats these days.
Would disagree wholeheartedly - also there have been studies conducted on the libertarian mindset which you might be interested in. There are not as many studies on libertarians, but a few do exist. As I recall, there are underlying reasons libertarianism has never really “taken off” - the mindset is more of a rarity and off putting to majority. I’ll try to find the paper.
“You can see that some politicians have half-picked up on this. It is why we have the surge in more simplistic and emotive political slogans….”
This is why when the left actually talks about policy and the right just shouts out slogans, they win. Obviously having policy is what matters most, but we have to find a way to give policy in a nicely wrapped bow.
What policies? Are you still stuck in a bubble of "save the democracy". Libertarians have been watching the democratic party devolve into authoritarianism for decades! It's why half the united states were fear mongered into voting for a female dolt.
Ugh. I thought I had found a social media platform that didn't have rude trolls. Please leave me alone. I don't want to speak to people who use insults in conversation.
That is certainly not the case, at least for my experience on substack. Hard to compare to X, since I've been off for a long time, but this place is a cesspool
You think Substack is a cesspool, CW? If so, that makes me sad. I did notice a HUGE shift in the culture here about 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after the US election. It was so disheartening. My hope is that it will turn around and be the positive place it once was.
You've probably thought of what I'm going to say, but I'm a psychologist living and working in a deep red county. I see intelligent people as well as uneducated people who vote red. Churches play a huge role, especially with a judgmental leader and strict rules, as does environment. But I also think there's a genetic component tossed in there as well. Large amygdalas passed down, reinforced by fear mongering, but then an outlier shows up. You're absolutely correct, it's very complicated, which makes it all the more difficult to confront. Although I suggest empathy and compassion for their fears.
Thanks, Laurie. Working up to it. I agree fully that if we scratch at the surface we will eventually see that a large part of those being pulled into authoritarian ideology are in fact a product of a harsh world and have, like most of us, been damaged in some way. Compassion is needed.
Some people want to look at the studies referred to in the piece. There are dozens of studies (and the years of PhD study) but here are a few if you want to dig deeper.
Meta-analysis on cognitive testing in Left vs Right ideologies:
Excellent. Thank you. For years, I have noted that voters make decisions based on negative emotions, not rational thinking, and that this is a dangerous path. In the US, it is shocking to see that the rural part of the country has fully ventured down this path. Is there a notable difference between “rural” and “urban” cognitive capacity/experiences?
Definitely as a neurologist you can speak to how subjects physical location can divide those with lower abilities to rationalize. Next, work in how skin color is an indicator of intelligence, you are amazing. I will avoid farms from now on. Thanks comrade Goya.
Hey take a look at racial differences in intelligence while you're at it. Don't think you have the stones to post the results. (before you call me a SupRemAciSt™, note that I would be, at best, third on the rankings)
As I live in a rural southern area, I can almost guarantee the answer is definitely yes! Also not wanting to talk down about anyone, but in my area there are many who are low information voters. They'll vote red NO MATTER WHO the nominee is.
Probably a combination of things really. Many of them that are say age 50+ never graduated high school. They were told from early childhood you will always vote Republican or else!
Right? There is a difference in the brain that never graduated highschool - and one that went on to join the military, graduated from college, graduated from masters or PhD. Sought careers in fields of greater complexity rather than low complexity. It’s amazing to see people here so affronted that cognition and intellect would differ (!) based on life experience. I’m not insulted that my physique is not that of a triathlete or basketball player . If one detests reading - and never picks up a book of any kind, your brain is going to be very different from someone that has . Even exposure to different news streams - or podcasts, they’re tailored to different brains.
I also think it’s really sad that elderly people are manipulated through fear - because the brain tends to get more prone in that direction - my mom fed herself on a diet of strict AM radio back in the day - and was throughly convinced the hoardes were descending any day. It’s amazing to think how long that particular fear card has been played.
For sure, after seeing how gaslit democrats were by their own party, it's easy to see how the fear instilled by democrat elites and the biased press made people fearful of not voting for democrats. Now, amd after they realize once again they were duped into fear voting, they will change their minds and not vote for democrats anymore.
What a great explainer, thanks for putting it so clearly.
It has cast my personal ‘feeling’ that a country prefers to be ruled by authoritarian, that I came to at the age of 17 (so many years ago) into a completely new light, and gives a potential explanation why I could come to think that an entire nation had one way of behaving (with plenty of dissidents, of course).
This gets to why the Dems saying voting for them would “save democracy” was so impotent in 2024. It was far too abstract of a concept. It was based on assumptions that people somehow just understood what that meant and what the machinations coming into play that do put this country at great risk are.
This is so brilliant, and it tracks so efficiently. I grew up in a conservative Baptist home. I understood the logic of what was taught to me, and I supported it intelligently until I reached a point when I’d disentangled from enmeshment and such enough that I started to feel great disease with the blatant hypocrisy of the conservative christians in particular.
I then lost my husband and was disillusioned by the proliferation of these conservative men, these wannabe heroes who are actually just painfully insecure and fearful because they internally feel so unworthy, which is a massively low vibration state as Dr David Hawkins asserts in Letting Go. This proclivity toward fear may be what causes brain scans to show low intelligence. Fear is such a low vibe state—it lowers our ability to perform physically—why not intellectually?
Anyway, I did date such a person in the wake of my husband’s death. I’ve written extensively about recovering from narcissistic abusive and raising one’s own vibration and recovering on one of my Substacks (Surthrival), and one of the things I was vociferous about following the (blessed) end of that aforementioned relationship and upon being stalked most likely by my former SO and some of his cronies, that they were motivated by fear. In fact, in one piece, I assert that the formation of organized religion was based on fear and keeping hoi polloi as they were. We have evidence up to present day in the form of systemic oppression supporting this, and we all know it and yet those who operate out of fear and sadly rule a major part of the country with fear-based rhetoric in the media to the extent that we created a global pandemic, keeping them at low vibrations, which means they are focused on survival and cannot prioritize the greater good as those who have elevated to a higher way of thinking and being can and gladly do.
Thank you for such a brilliant and thought-provoking piece.
Thanks for sharing, Amy. I think you have nailed what my interpretation of the studies is: mostly fear drives the “alpha-male” wannabe’s mindset. And this may well be associated with whatever caused their low self-esteem.
The pandemic was badly managed but I’m not sure the fear of it was artificially elevated on purpose. Indeed, for the right and their free market ideologies, the pandemic was a big problem - they preferred less attention over it.
I do think mistakes were made, but they were made in the face of the unknown and with a high degree of caution. This was a novel coronavirus, something that we as a society had not seen before in humans. I do think, however, governments have to be more transparent in what they do and do not know.
Thank you so much for responding. I appreciate the confirmation that I’m on the right track with my understanding, and I think given my own experience with low-self esteem and having been on the opposite side of the coin, the things we most vocally say we are not, we indeed are but are hiding that in the shadows of our subconscious. Some of us are able to raise our vibration and shed light on these untruths, but it’s a hard battle because we are inundated with the endless fear-mongering press stream, which is, of course, corporate run and thus operating in the best interests of the companies.
The people are just pawns who think they are willing players at this point. It’s sick psychological warfare, and we have far too few who are armed to withstand the onslaught. Relative to the pandemic—at the point it became a health crisis, you’re totally right—it was mismanaged, and what we really saw was the absolute dogged ignorance of far too many on the right in a country where we had liberal leadership. This is concerning—if we could get rid of labels and just have potential leaders share ideas, perhaps people would stop engaging so much ideological groupthink.
But I digress. The pandemic comment—what I meant was before we started to see the impacts, when it was just a rumor. I won’t pretend to know the totality or even close to it as it pertains to quantum energies, but the basics inform (and of a flu variety, Hawkins did say this) that when we all start to pay attention to something, we can make it manifest. If the concept of this foreign virus with heinous potential enters our collective conscious, then we’re absolutely going to be predisposed to project fear surrounding that.
I was immune from that fear. My husband was sick and had just died. I was completely self-absorbed and didn’t even really give it much concern from a fear standpoint. I just numbly followed the protocols and was a glorified zombie. I realize from that experience we must be intentional and selective about who and what we give our energy to. I feel that the election outcome may have been different had we focused on what we wanted rather than the powerful negative energy force we didn’t. I realized it too late in the game. But we can always move forward.
Relative to the proliferation of those who live in rigidity and fear, I continue to do what I feel is right—work on myself, keep my vibration up, and help others as I can with awareness that individual healing is collective healing.
Great post, Dr. Goyal. I'd love to see the neuroscience on "left wing" voters, as well. I was raised in a conservative home, but I am moderate politically in my middle age. It's not only the right wing voters who have gone astray, according to my observations. And I don't have data to substantiate what I'm writing here, but I have noticed extreme left voters are equally irrational in their line of thinking. I'm puzzled as to how we've gotten so polarized, though I have my suspicions on what I've learned from the influence of social media, psychologically speaking, on our cognitive state. Interested to see more from you. Thank you!
I agree. Intellect does not equate to civility or any higher moral plane. But the findings were about patterns. This is a millions miles from saying that all right wingers are less intelligent than all left wingers. The bigger issue for me is where the vulnerable voters are - who can be easily persuaded to act against their own interests. I think the evidence is strong enough to suggest it is most clearly on the right.
Thanks, Jeannie. Call me Dan, please. Certainly there is evidence that hard-left ideologues have a tendency towards an overrepresented fear based cognitive pattern. The evidence isn’t as strong because it’s harder to quantify and most studies just look at right versus left.
I wonder why that is, though? I can tell you that, growing up in the Midwest and coming from a conservative family and community, there are plenty of people I know who are smart, educated, cultured, and compassionate who still vote Republican. That’s not to say I agree with them, just that I wonder what sort of margins of error are present in the current scientific studies on the “right.” And I do think it’s fair to ask why the focus is so heavy on those who are more conservative? It’s worth asking.
I was thinking more about this last night after I logged off Substack and realized that one of the reasons this bothers me is that I think it’s important to proceed with caution when we read about scientific studies. If we come to hard and fast conclusions about a person or group of people and use the data as “evidence” to justify our negative feelings/impressions/stereotypes, that can veer into dangerous territory.
The real poison is elevating intellect to the quintessential quality or virtue. There are smarter people than both you and me, on both sides (and even independents!). There are smarter people than me of every major worldview/religion. The whole thing really falls apart when the science shows that IQ is strongly correlated with race. Since we believe that intelligence is king, now we have to grapple with the implication that some people are, genetically, more stupid.
I agree, intellect is not the virtue. Intelligence and civility are not mutually exclusive. The issue is the vulnerability that underdeveloped cognition or heightened fear response causes.
Yes, CW, you make an excellent point. I appreciate that you wrote this, especially since I was just drafting my own essay here on Substack about my daughter who has a rare genetic diagnosis and the lesson I learned about how intelligence was not what made her valuable.
On a very small scale, when he edited the BBC’s Today Programme for a day, Colin Firth commissioned a study on brain structure, as he had wondered if people with right wing views had different brains from liberal thinkers. It found that “greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala.” The anterior cingulate cortex is the part of the brain associated with rational thinking, while the amygdala is the part that processes emotions including fear, anxiety, and aggression. (Study titled “Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults”)
Thanks, Liz. I am familiar with the different structures of the brain - not because I am a neuroscientist, but because I studied them on a rudimentary level when I was both an undergraduate and graduate student in psychology.
It’s worth considering what the origins knee-jerk reactions of left-wing voters are. I have a few primary examples where absolute spite was expressed for a person who openly voted for Trump, yet the hatred, in my view, was unwarranted.
I write this, because we cannot know the totality of a person simply by who they voted for. It’s not possible. It eliminates the possibility for nuance and, quite frankly, dialogue.
So, the amygdala being the emotional and reactionary segment of the brain as seen mostly in right-wing voters, I’m not sure that’s totally accurate. I am skeptical, only because I have seen incredibly reactionary and volatile expressions of rage from left-wing voters, too. I’ve observed it coming from both sides.
From what the studies have found, perhaps it’s the case that a higher percentage of people with right wing views have this brain structure than do people with left/liberal views? Just as we are told in the UK that older people vote Conservative - when there’s a smaller proportion of us that don’t.
That could be, Liz. I think there are a lot of variables to research that can affect the outcome of the results. Unless we can see the experimental design and decipher the data, we can’t really come to broad conclusions, I would say. Or at least it’s important to be cautious about making generalizations.
A survey conducted by YouGov in the UK looked at the OCEAN personality characteristics of Conservative and Labour voters. Conservative voters scored higher on conscientiousness and extraversion. Labour voters scored higher on openness, agreeableness and neuroticism. Which goes to show that these issues are so complex that the results you get differ according to how you design the study.
As we all know, "left" and "right" wing are just journalistic terms of convenience and don't really mean anything when you drill down further. "Conservative" may just mean believing in family life. In US terms "liberal" may be advocating for gay family life. But the underlying personality could be just the same.
The fact that studies may show a tendency of a particular cluster of personality characteristics tend to vote in a particular direction, does NOT mean that a voter in a particular direction is likely to have a particular cluster of personality characteristics.
Without stating all the huge difficulties here it will mislead and may encourage left leaning voters to pathologise right leaning voters, which is part kf the problem, not lart of the solution.
I agree, such an exploration is fraught with difficulties. And as I stated very clearly, these are tendencies in a subset of right-wing thinkers. But the bigger point is the coercion factor - that certain individuals are vulnerable to fear-based messaging. This holds true, despite the complexities involved.
I would also suggest giving more weight to fMRi studies and formal cognitive testing studies than the YouGov questionnaire specifically examining the traits (and only those traits) you refer to. Indeed, even this didn’t show an over 50% prevalence of any characteristic even in the strongest Conservative voters.
But your wider point about turning this into a pathology and causing further division is accepted. I guess the general concern in the neuroscience community is that prejudice isn’t simply about being taught to discriminate, but there is an actual deficit in cognitive development that leads to such positions. I think for the subset of right wing voters that power these findings, this is correct and has massive ramifications.
Whilst its some time since I looked at this research and I never did so comprehensively, if I was going to set a hypotheisis to explore, it would be that everyone feels fear, but they differ in their response and in particular, some people will tend to look to others for support whereas others will bring up the drawbridge. This difference is connected with trust and trust is significantly connected with environment. It is quite possible that people with cognitive limitations are low on trust because they are more likely to be badly treated and operate in low status areas of society. A politics such as neo-liberalism which exposes them to exploitation and reduces their social protection, reduces their social trust and so drives them to the right. But overall I don't believe that much if anything can be concluded about people's intelligence by looking at the way they habitually vote.
Dr Goyal, I ask without snark or contempt: is there a reason, apart from potential professional disapprobation, why you avoid considering the cognitive development of, for example, persons who believe human beings with XY chromosomes can menstruate and get pregnant?
Yes, that is an argumentative question, but I think it's relevant and reasonable. I don't presume to know your thoughts on that subject, but a majority of Americans, including many people who previously identified as liberal democrats, see these "woke" notions as anti-scientific, ideologically driven, partisan dogma. I don't think it is a stretch to assume that acceptance of such "woke" ideas correlates strongly with partisan left-wing thinking. The emphatic public repudiation of wokeness was undoubtedly impactful on the most recent election. Surely this warrants examination of left wing cognitive development as much as any common factors one might attribute to the "right".
Thanks for the very interesting article, your explanations all seem to make sense. However, I’d be remiss to ask if you could post some links to the studies that you refer to so I don’t have to just take your word for it.
This article makes perfect sense. It is hard to believe that people will vote against their own interests. I have often thought that their DNA might have become so damaged that they have lost their cognitive abilities.
Who told you that? What if I told you that I think *you* vote against your interests? I don't know a single person who voted for DJT47 who is thinking they will get some sort of special treatment for being in the club once the dictatorship is installed. Instead, we all believe that this is the best path forward for ALL Americans - even those who are blessed while kicking and screaming.
Don't bother. This guy is another unpaid shill for the party of fear and eugenics wearing his jack ass lab coat while collecting our tax dollars in Canada.
That said, I recall a mantra I learned while studying applied behavioral science: 'All anger is rooted in fear.'
I believe that fear mongering by right-wing pols has played a far greater role in Trump's election than low intelligence. It does seem clear that some brains are more prone to being manipulated by fear.
A good point. Actually the active cultivating of fear has occurred and this plays more to the right than the left
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Excellent and I have been saying this for 8 years. There is a great amount of research on authoritarian followers. Dems just don’t learn. They need people to go into the Broverse media armed with a correct way to message to them.
According to Bob Altemeyer, who spent decades studying folks high in authoritarianism:
(1) Authoritarian followers tend to have more problems with critical thinking than the rest of us. They are especially poor at inferences, deductions, and understanding when evidence is or isn't proof of something.
(2) Authoritarian followers tend more than the rest of us to have highly compartmentalized minds, as if they put each fact or idea in its own file, and they never merge files. It won't occur to them that one thing they believe contradicts something else they believe.
(3) Authoritarian followers tend more than the rest of us to have highly compartmentalized minds, as if they put each fact or idea in its own file, and they never merge files. It won't occur to them that one thing they believe contradicts something else they believe. They have double standards towards others' beliefs or conduct vs. their own.
(4) Authoritarian followers tend to be hypocritical. E.g., they may insist their views are protected by free speech but are quick to urge censorship of other's views.
(5) Individuals high in authoritarianism tend to have little self-awareness.
(6) They tend to exhibit a profound ethnocentrism, seeing the world more sharply than the rest of us do in terms of in-groups and out-groups. E.g., they tend to be "highly suspicious of their outgroups but incredibly credulous to the point of self-delusion with their in-groups."
(7) Authoritarians tend to be extremely dogmatic. Dogmatism is their last defense against facts or logic. In my own experience, they also tend to see the world in black-and-white terms, all-or-nothing,
Great input. This follows what my own research has found. I will look into Lakoff. Thanks!
You have just described narcissism.
Narcissists don’t care about anything that is not about themselves. They don’t engage in critical thinking because all their thinking is in service of keeping their false self deluded that it is both the perfect hero and an ever-present victim, regardless of the circumstances.
They are not trying to have a reasonable, rational debate to learn something new, or even to learn more about their own perspective, they just want to win and have everything their way, based on their feelings of delusional entitled superiority. This is because they have never actually grown up and are stuck regressed as an emotional toddler.
A lack of empathy for others, which narcissists have, because they just don’t think that anyone but them really exists, means a lack of ‘interconnected’ awareness. They cannot relate to other people as seperate autonomous beings because no one but them is real.
Other people are all just props in their movie - imagine a prop trying to tell the movie star what to do? That is why they don’t get it when they insult & harm you and then are upset when you make a ‘big deal’ out of it and try to hold them accountable for their actions.
They cry like they truly think they are the one who is being unfairly victimised. They think this because they really think anything they do to you is ok because you somehow ‘provoked’ them, by not doing what they wanted. They can break the rules because they are always right, while you need to follow the rules or we will all suffer from some kind of chaos, due to their paranoia. Every projection is a confession, they will not do their own shadow work and need other people & groups, scapegoats, to carry their rejected qualities.
You are nothing to them but a prop, a shiny prop that they desperately must see themselves reflected back to themselves through you - either you as a failure so they can feel better about themselves, or you as someone they feel they gain from because of your perceived high status.
They don’t want to work together, because they only want to dominate. & they will do whatever they need to do to be in the power position. A podcast I listen to The Little Shaman had a great description - they act like the fox but they are the rabbit, driven by intense survival energy to stay deluded from reality, and who they might find themselves to actually be it.
Understanding the trauma that causes narcissism which creates so much suffering and us all working on dealing with our trauma from living under the narcissistic death cult that is colonial capitalism…this is path out, going in and finding out why we let people with what we know are serious emotional/cognitive regression rule over us, who should know better…We keep getting sucker punched by the bullies, again and again, might be time to find out why.
IFS is an amazing lens to understand this all. Betrayal Trauma Theory is about how the more you are dependant on the person who ‘betrays’ you the less able you will be to see it. It is attachment - you need to stay attached to people who are neglectful or abusive to you so you live checked out in denial. Denial is such a foundational part of childhood trauma. I think a lot of the people on the right, because of their already rigid hierarchical family values (based on denial of the trauma they cause), stay with the authoritarianism that feels ‘correct’ for them because they are used to it. And the other powerful lesson from IFS, is knowing that you have protector parts that keep you safe by causing you present day trouble, so you will not feel the pain of your exiled child parts. Protector parts don’t keep you safe from pain. In fact they often cause you different ‘distracting’ pain that is in service to keeping you in the dark about your own childhood trauma. If you have an addiction, you can keep yourself in denial of some other deeper core wound, by battling against yourself, or raging against others.
I have come to understand that when people do anything against their own self-interests, including voting, there is a deeper pain they think will overwhelm them if it comes to the surface of their conscious awareness. They are voting in their self-interests, it is just that this is a part of them that is in control of keeping them in delusion and denial, to stay safely ignorant. Our protector parts and exiled parts are stuck frozen in time and need our help as our triple A self (like soul) to help free them from their pain by unburdening them.
Could it be that there is a correlation between being raised in a highly, fear-based, shame-based religion and/or fear-based, shame-based family robs children of necessary developmental steps and experiences where children are encouraged to be fact discerners, inference drawers, logic appliers, question-askers, etc.? Otherwise, “trauma by [religious or familial] dogma”, as my husband quipped. It certainly isn’t genetic although it is seen to be generational.
It is not by accident that evangelical Christian mindset merges with this type of mindset . There is a lot of study of the religious brain too.
And what would being “ armed with ‘correct’ messaging” look or sound like?
What a great and important report! I read that 20% of our country’s citizens are illiterate and 50% are functionally illiterate. No one can learn critical thinking if they can’t understand the premise. I am going to take a tiny step towards improving a child’s chance to read by volunteering to help teach them. Thanks for this report and thanks to Meidus for giving us a safe place.
Please check out getting a Wired For Reading certification. Most of the reading instruction in schools is based on the Whole Language Learning concept, which has not shown good results for the majority of students. Pure phonics instruction, no guessing allowed, is the most effective teaching strategy for 50-70% of students.
Thank you very much for that tool! I will follow up
Great idea to help children with their literacy!!👍
Finally good to see someone volunteering versus being paid to help others. Probably one of the better outcomes from hearing how much democrats had to pay for people to endorse their candidates.
Everything you say rings true.
However, scientists claiming that in some % of cases cognitive deficits account for susceptibility to right wing extremism will be translated into an overgeneralization that one must be stupid to vote Republican which in turn evokes defensive outrage and doubling down with even greater intensity.
Perhaps it would be more productive to say that the cognitive abilities of a certain % of right wingers fall into a sub-category of the 'multiple intelligence' spectrum ... or some such.
Thanks Gary. No doubt this is what makes reporting on it difficult. Bear in mind that we are talking about a specific group - those being manipulated versus the manipulators.
It must be difficult sorting out organically based cognitive deficits from education shortfalls. For example, if someone has never taken a course in logic she or he might not appreciate that politicians constantly spew logical fallacies. Others have pointed out the role critical thinking plays. Is it low intelligence that makes it difficult for one to identify logical fallacies or think critically or the failure of our education system. Probably both …
Although the evidence has got that far yet, I suspect it is more a set of cognitive functions that develop normally as part of a stable home environment. It is not, I don’t think, related specifically to being clever or not.
Gary, I think you expressed it very well with that last sentence. It's likely both a function of native intelligence and exposure to quality education in any area that builds critical thinking skills (math, for example). I'm an old retired engineer. I've seen a gradual erosion of the quality of K-12 education in this country over my lifetime. This, when overlaid with Dr. Goyle's excellent synopsis of the variation of brain structure and processes across the general population probably has had a very significant impact upon our collective rightward shift. It also correlates well with a now generally accepted theory that we're riding a pendulum with an 80 year period; it takes that long to affect basic, multigenerational changes in things like quality of education and fundamental "institutionsl changes".
Sorry, but in my opinion, logic is not taught through math, it is taught through language which might be then turned into mathematical constructs. If I am incorrect, then why is Logic taught as part of Philosopy and Rhetoric studies and not Maths and Engineering, except indirectly?
You are neglecting those that serve themselves. Often the over educated in areas of arts believe it imbues them with rich scientific awareness. Same goes for the social sciences. Mostly incapable of understanding the policies effects on how things work. Like solar power, agriculture, and energy production.
Thanks for the clarification, Dr Goyal.
I see the languaging challenge you face!
He is slowly learning to speak humanity. Next week he will be working on sections other than Marxism in the library. Maybe read Hayek, or Descartes.
Oooh, deep. But, I doubt anyone here understands your problem.
I wondered, "How would I feel reading this if I was a Republican?". I would not be happy, proving your point.
I think media has a big effect, especially when informative journalism is "pay to play" denying the general population truth. What news program is most likely to be displayed in a customer waiting room? Is it the cheapest? The 4th Estate is now a commodity and profit driven.
I don't think Republicans are solely at fault, though. I've seen incredibly strange and hateful behavior from Democrats, as well. It would be helpful to understand them, too.
I am a libertarian. It's actually sad when scientists lash out at those they disagree with. Often loneliness and belief in an esoteric governments power over oneself is the biggest cause for authoritarianism. Or as most would call Democrats these days.
Would disagree wholeheartedly - also there have been studies conducted on the libertarian mindset which you might be interested in. There are not as many studies on libertarians, but a few do exist. As I recall, there are underlying reasons libertarianism has never really “taken off” - the mindset is more of a rarity and off putting to majority. I’ll try to find the paper.
I came specifically to read those responses 😅
“You can see that some politicians have half-picked up on this. It is why we have the surge in more simplistic and emotive political slogans….”
This is why when the left actually talks about policy and the right just shouts out slogans, they win. Obviously having policy is what matters most, but we have to find a way to give policy in a nicely wrapped bow.
Exactly. Pick progressive policies but communicate them for the specific audiences.
We need less writers and more doers Michelle.
What policies? Are you still stuck in a bubble of "save the democracy". Libertarians have been watching the democratic party devolve into authoritarianism for decades! It's why half the united states were fear mongered into voting for a female dolt.
Ugh. I thought I had found a social media platform that didn't have rude trolls. Please leave me alone. I don't want to speak to people who use insults in conversation.
I'm with you, Michelle. We can all be respectful in these discussions.
That is certainly not the case, at least for my experience on substack. Hard to compare to X, since I've been off for a long time, but this place is a cesspool
You think Substack is a cesspool, CW? If so, that makes me sad. I did notice a HUGE shift in the culture here about 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after the US election. It was so disheartening. My hope is that it will turn around and be the positive place it once was.
You've probably thought of what I'm going to say, but I'm a psychologist living and working in a deep red county. I see intelligent people as well as uneducated people who vote red. Churches play a huge role, especially with a judgmental leader and strict rules, as does environment. But I also think there's a genetic component tossed in there as well. Large amygdalas passed down, reinforced by fear mongering, but then an outlier shows up. You're absolutely correct, it's very complicated, which makes it all the more difficult to confront. Although I suggest empathy and compassion for their fears.
Thanks, Laurie. Working up to it. I agree fully that if we scratch at the surface we will eventually see that a large part of those being pulled into authoritarian ideology are in fact a product of a harsh world and have, like most of us, been damaged in some way. Compassion is needed.
Some people want to look at the studies referred to in the piece. There are dozens of studies (and the years of PhD study) but here are a few if you want to dig deeper.
Meta-analysis on cognitive testing in Left vs Right ideologies:
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/55893129.pdf
Amygdala structure:
https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(24)01757-7
A review of some of the imaging studies:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17828253/
propensity to “synchronisation” (programming) greater in right than left:
Looking at the difference between extreme views (both sides) and moderates:
https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/1/3/pgac066/6590843
Excellent. Thank you. For years, I have noted that voters make decisions based on negative emotions, not rational thinking, and that this is a dangerous path. In the US, it is shocking to see that the rural part of the country has fully ventured down this path. Is there a notable difference between “rural” and “urban” cognitive capacity/experiences?
I will have a closer look at the urban to rural differences, bearing in mind that “intelligence” is not the same thing as values or morality.
Definitely as a neurologist you can speak to how subjects physical location can divide those with lower abilities to rationalize. Next, work in how skin color is an indicator of intelligence, you are amazing. I will avoid farms from now on. Thanks comrade Goya.
Hey take a look at racial differences in intelligence while you're at it. Don't think you have the stones to post the results. (before you call me a SupRemAciSt™, note that I would be, at best, third on the rankings)
As I live in a rural southern area, I can almost guarantee the answer is definitely yes! Also not wanting to talk down about anyone, but in my area there are many who are low information voters. They'll vote red NO MATTER WHO the nominee is.
Absolutely - they do not want to take more info in - and perhaps it’s overload on the cognition (?) everyone is different
Probably a combination of things really. Many of them that are say age 50+ never graduated high school. They were told from early childhood you will always vote Republican or else!
Right? There is a difference in the brain that never graduated highschool - and one that went on to join the military, graduated from college, graduated from masters or PhD. Sought careers in fields of greater complexity rather than low complexity. It’s amazing to see people here so affronted that cognition and intellect would differ (!) based on life experience. I’m not insulted that my physique is not that of a triathlete or basketball player . If one detests reading - and never picks up a book of any kind, your brain is going to be very different from someone that has . Even exposure to different news streams - or podcasts, they’re tailored to different brains.
I also think it’s really sad that elderly people are manipulated through fear - because the brain tends to get more prone in that direction - my mom fed herself on a diet of strict AM radio back in the day - and was throughly convinced the hoardes were descending any day. It’s amazing to think how long that particular fear card has been played.
For sure, after seeing how gaslit democrats were by their own party, it's easy to see how the fear instilled by democrat elites and the biased press made people fearful of not voting for democrats. Now, amd after they realize once again they were duped into fear voting, they will change their minds and not vote for democrats anymore.
Weird logic/rationale - do you see gaslighting occurring with other groups ?
What a great explainer, thanks for putting it so clearly.
It has cast my personal ‘feeling’ that a country prefers to be ruled by authoritarian, that I came to at the age of 17 (so many years ago) into a completely new light, and gives a potential explanation why I could come to think that an entire nation had one way of behaving (with plenty of dissidents, of course).
This gets to why the Dems saying voting for them would “save democracy” was so impotent in 2024. It was far too abstract of a concept. It was based on assumptions that people somehow just understood what that meant and what the machinations coming into play that do put this country at great risk are.
This is so brilliant, and it tracks so efficiently. I grew up in a conservative Baptist home. I understood the logic of what was taught to me, and I supported it intelligently until I reached a point when I’d disentangled from enmeshment and such enough that I started to feel great disease with the blatant hypocrisy of the conservative christians in particular.
I then lost my husband and was disillusioned by the proliferation of these conservative men, these wannabe heroes who are actually just painfully insecure and fearful because they internally feel so unworthy, which is a massively low vibration state as Dr David Hawkins asserts in Letting Go. This proclivity toward fear may be what causes brain scans to show low intelligence. Fear is such a low vibe state—it lowers our ability to perform physically—why not intellectually?
Anyway, I did date such a person in the wake of my husband’s death. I’ve written extensively about recovering from narcissistic abusive and raising one’s own vibration and recovering on one of my Substacks (Surthrival), and one of the things I was vociferous about following the (blessed) end of that aforementioned relationship and upon being stalked most likely by my former SO and some of his cronies, that they were motivated by fear. In fact, in one piece, I assert that the formation of organized religion was based on fear and keeping hoi polloi as they were. We have evidence up to present day in the form of systemic oppression supporting this, and we all know it and yet those who operate out of fear and sadly rule a major part of the country with fear-based rhetoric in the media to the extent that we created a global pandemic, keeping them at low vibrations, which means they are focused on survival and cannot prioritize the greater good as those who have elevated to a higher way of thinking and being can and gladly do.
Thank you for such a brilliant and thought-provoking piece.
Thanks for sharing, Amy. I think you have nailed what my interpretation of the studies is: mostly fear drives the “alpha-male” wannabe’s mindset. And this may well be associated with whatever caused their low self-esteem.
The pandemic was badly managed but I’m not sure the fear of it was artificially elevated on purpose. Indeed, for the right and their free market ideologies, the pandemic was a big problem - they preferred less attention over it.
I do think mistakes were made, but they were made in the face of the unknown and with a high degree of caution. This was a novel coronavirus, something that we as a society had not seen before in humans. I do think, however, governments have to be more transparent in what they do and do not know.
Thank you so much for responding. I appreciate the confirmation that I’m on the right track with my understanding, and I think given my own experience with low-self esteem and having been on the opposite side of the coin, the things we most vocally say we are not, we indeed are but are hiding that in the shadows of our subconscious. Some of us are able to raise our vibration and shed light on these untruths, but it’s a hard battle because we are inundated with the endless fear-mongering press stream, which is, of course, corporate run and thus operating in the best interests of the companies.
The people are just pawns who think they are willing players at this point. It’s sick psychological warfare, and we have far too few who are armed to withstand the onslaught. Relative to the pandemic—at the point it became a health crisis, you’re totally right—it was mismanaged, and what we really saw was the absolute dogged ignorance of far too many on the right in a country where we had liberal leadership. This is concerning—if we could get rid of labels and just have potential leaders share ideas, perhaps people would stop engaging so much ideological groupthink.
But I digress. The pandemic comment—what I meant was before we started to see the impacts, when it was just a rumor. I won’t pretend to know the totality or even close to it as it pertains to quantum energies, but the basics inform (and of a flu variety, Hawkins did say this) that when we all start to pay attention to something, we can make it manifest. If the concept of this foreign virus with heinous potential enters our collective conscious, then we’re absolutely going to be predisposed to project fear surrounding that.
I was immune from that fear. My husband was sick and had just died. I was completely self-absorbed and didn’t even really give it much concern from a fear standpoint. I just numbly followed the protocols and was a glorified zombie. I realize from that experience we must be intentional and selective about who and what we give our energy to. I feel that the election outcome may have been different had we focused on what we wanted rather than the powerful negative energy force we didn’t. I realized it too late in the game. But we can always move forward.
Relative to the proliferation of those who live in rigidity and fear, I continue to do what I feel is right—work on myself, keep my vibration up, and help others as I can with awareness that individual healing is collective healing.
Great post, Dr. Goyal. I'd love to see the neuroscience on "left wing" voters, as well. I was raised in a conservative home, but I am moderate politically in my middle age. It's not only the right wing voters who have gone astray, according to my observations. And I don't have data to substantiate what I'm writing here, but I have noticed extreme left voters are equally irrational in their line of thinking. I'm puzzled as to how we've gotten so polarized, though I have my suspicions on what I've learned from the influence of social media, psychologically speaking, on our cognitive state. Interested to see more from you. Thank you!
I agree. Intellect does not equate to civility or any higher moral plane. But the findings were about patterns. This is a millions miles from saying that all right wingers are less intelligent than all left wingers. The bigger issue for me is where the vulnerable voters are - who can be easily persuaded to act against their own interests. I think the evidence is strong enough to suggest it is most clearly on the right.
Thanks, Jeannie. Call me Dan, please. Certainly there is evidence that hard-left ideologues have a tendency towards an overrepresented fear based cognitive pattern. The evidence isn’t as strong because it’s harder to quantify and most studies just look at right versus left.
I wonder why that is, though? I can tell you that, growing up in the Midwest and coming from a conservative family and community, there are plenty of people I know who are smart, educated, cultured, and compassionate who still vote Republican. That’s not to say I agree with them, just that I wonder what sort of margins of error are present in the current scientific studies on the “right.” And I do think it’s fair to ask why the focus is so heavy on those who are more conservative? It’s worth asking.
I was thinking more about this last night after I logged off Substack and realized that one of the reasons this bothers me is that I think it’s important to proceed with caution when we read about scientific studies. If we come to hard and fast conclusions about a person or group of people and use the data as “evidence” to justify our negative feelings/impressions/stereotypes, that can veer into dangerous territory.
The real poison is elevating intellect to the quintessential quality or virtue. There are smarter people than both you and me, on both sides (and even independents!). There are smarter people than me of every major worldview/religion. The whole thing really falls apart when the science shows that IQ is strongly correlated with race. Since we believe that intelligence is king, now we have to grapple with the implication that some people are, genetically, more stupid.
I agree, intellect is not the virtue. Intelligence and civility are not mutually exclusive. The issue is the vulnerability that underdeveloped cognition or heightened fear response causes.
Yes, CW, you make an excellent point. I appreciate that you wrote this, especially since I was just drafting my own essay here on Substack about my daughter who has a rare genetic diagnosis and the lesson I learned about how intelligence was not what made her valuable.
I hope we can unite in an effort to show the intrinsic value of every human, apart from genetic or economic factors.
That is my sincere hope, too, CW. I think we can, bit by bit. It will take time and patience, but it can happen.
Or perhaps the people doing the research studies are reluctant to study the lefty ideologues because of personal bias.
On a very small scale, when he edited the BBC’s Today Programme for a day, Colin Firth commissioned a study on brain structure, as he had wondered if people with right wing views had different brains from liberal thinkers. It found that “greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala.” The anterior cingulate cortex is the part of the brain associated with rational thinking, while the amygdala is the part that processes emotions including fear, anxiety, and aggression. (Study titled “Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults”)
Thanks, Liz. I am familiar with the different structures of the brain - not because I am a neuroscientist, but because I studied them on a rudimentary level when I was both an undergraduate and graduate student in psychology.
It’s worth considering what the origins knee-jerk reactions of left-wing voters are. I have a few primary examples where absolute spite was expressed for a person who openly voted for Trump, yet the hatred, in my view, was unwarranted.
I write this, because we cannot know the totality of a person simply by who they voted for. It’s not possible. It eliminates the possibility for nuance and, quite frankly, dialogue.
So, the amygdala being the emotional and reactionary segment of the brain as seen mostly in right-wing voters, I’m not sure that’s totally accurate. I am skeptical, only because I have seen incredibly reactionary and volatile expressions of rage from left-wing voters, too. I’ve observed it coming from both sides.
From what the studies have found, perhaps it’s the case that a higher percentage of people with right wing views have this brain structure than do people with left/liberal views? Just as we are told in the UK that older people vote Conservative - when there’s a smaller proportion of us that don’t.
That could be, Liz. I think there are a lot of variables to research that can affect the outcome of the results. Unless we can see the experimental design and decipher the data, we can’t really come to broad conclusions, I would say. Or at least it’s important to be cautious about making generalizations.
There are a lot of problems with this.
A survey conducted by YouGov in the UK looked at the OCEAN personality characteristics of Conservative and Labour voters. Conservative voters scored higher on conscientiousness and extraversion. Labour voters scored higher on openness, agreeableness and neuroticism. Which goes to show that these issues are so complex that the results you get differ according to how you design the study.
As we all know, "left" and "right" wing are just journalistic terms of convenience and don't really mean anything when you drill down further. "Conservative" may just mean believing in family life. In US terms "liberal" may be advocating for gay family life. But the underlying personality could be just the same.
The fact that studies may show a tendency of a particular cluster of personality characteristics tend to vote in a particular direction, does NOT mean that a voter in a particular direction is likely to have a particular cluster of personality characteristics.
Without stating all the huge difficulties here it will mislead and may encourage left leaning voters to pathologise right leaning voters, which is part kf the problem, not lart of the solution.
I agree, such an exploration is fraught with difficulties. And as I stated very clearly, these are tendencies in a subset of right-wing thinkers. But the bigger point is the coercion factor - that certain individuals are vulnerable to fear-based messaging. This holds true, despite the complexities involved.
I would also suggest giving more weight to fMRi studies and formal cognitive testing studies than the YouGov questionnaire specifically examining the traits (and only those traits) you refer to. Indeed, even this didn’t show an over 50% prevalence of any characteristic even in the strongest Conservative voters.
But your wider point about turning this into a pathology and causing further division is accepted. I guess the general concern in the neuroscience community is that prejudice isn’t simply about being taught to discriminate, but there is an actual deficit in cognitive development that leads to such positions. I think for the subset of right wing voters that power these findings, this is correct and has massive ramifications.
Whilst its some time since I looked at this research and I never did so comprehensively, if I was going to set a hypotheisis to explore, it would be that everyone feels fear, but they differ in their response and in particular, some people will tend to look to others for support whereas others will bring up the drawbridge. This difference is connected with trust and trust is significantly connected with environment. It is quite possible that people with cognitive limitations are low on trust because they are more likely to be badly treated and operate in low status areas of society. A politics such as neo-liberalism which exposes them to exploitation and reduces their social protection, reduces their social trust and so drives them to the right. But overall I don't believe that much if anything can be concluded about people's intelligence by looking at the way they habitually vote.
Dr Goyal, I ask without snark or contempt: is there a reason, apart from potential professional disapprobation, why you avoid considering the cognitive development of, for example, persons who believe human beings with XY chromosomes can menstruate and get pregnant?
Yes, that is an argumentative question, but I think it's relevant and reasonable. I don't presume to know your thoughts on that subject, but a majority of Americans, including many people who previously identified as liberal democrats, see these "woke" notions as anti-scientific, ideologically driven, partisan dogma. I don't think it is a stretch to assume that acceptance of such "woke" ideas correlates strongly with partisan left-wing thinking. The emphatic public repudiation of wokeness was undoubtedly impactful on the most recent election. Surely this warrants examination of left wing cognitive development as much as any common factors one might attribute to the "right".
Hi Dr Dan,
Thanks for the very interesting article, your explanations all seem to make sense. However, I’d be remiss to ask if you could post some links to the studies that you refer to so I don’t have to just take your word for it.
Thanks!
It is my understanding of the broad range of studies. Is there a specific area you want to look at in more detail?
One of the meta-analyses worth reading:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282421724_The_Association_of_Cognitive_Ability_with_Right-Wing_Ideological_Attitudes_and_Prejudice_A_Meta-Analytic_Review
This article makes perfect sense. It is hard to believe that people will vote against their own interests. I have often thought that their DNA might have become so damaged that they have lost their cognitive abilities.
> people will vote against their own interests
Who told you that? What if I told you that I think *you* vote against your interests? I don't know a single person who voted for DJT47 who is thinking they will get some sort of special treatment for being in the club once the dictatorship is installed. Instead, we all believe that this is the best path forward for ALL Americans - even those who are blessed while kicking and screaming.
Don't bother. This guy is another unpaid shill for the party of fear and eugenics wearing his jack ass lab coat while collecting our tax dollars in Canada.
Wow, so insightful. Have you also thought that about people of color? Maybe sunlight causes homosexuality?
It has made me question some of my thinking.