Debunking a study on liberals supposedly being smarter than conservatives

Just got done reading a piece written by William Saletan at Slate on a a recent study done in Nature Neuroscience which supposedly indicated that, in essence, liberals were smarter than conservatives. An excerpt:

Frank Sulloway, a Berkeley professor who co-authored a damning psychological analysis of conservatism four years ago, illustrates the problem. Appearing in the Times as a researcher “not connected to the study“—despite having co-written his similar 2003 analysis with one of its authors—Sulloway endorsed the study and pointed out, “There is ample data from the history of science showing that social and political liberals indeed do tend to support major revolutions in science.” That’s true: When new ideas turn out to be right, liberals are vindicated. But when new ideas turn out to be wrong, they cease to be “revolutions in science,” so it’s hard to keep score of liberalism’s net results. And that’s in science, where errors, being relatively factual, are easiest to prove and correct. In culture and politics, errors can be unrecoverable.

The conservative case against this study is easy to make. Sure, we’re fonder of old ways than you are. That’s in our definition. Some of our people are obtuse; so are some of yours. If you studied the rest of us in real life, you’d find that while we second-guess the status quo less than you do, we second-guess putative reforms more than you do, so in terms of complexity, ambiguity, and critical thinking, it’s probably a wash. Also, our standard of “information” is a bit tougher than the blips and fads you fall for. Sometimes, these inclinations lead us astray. But over the long run, they’ve served us and society pretty well. It’s just that you notice all the times we were wrong and ignore all the times we were right.

In fact, that’s exactly what you’ve done in this study: You’ve manufactured a tiny world of letters, half-seconds, and button-pushing, so you can catch us in clear errors and keep out the part of life where our tendencies correct yours. And now you feel great about yourselves. Congratulations. You haven’t told us much about our way of thinking. But you’ve told us a lot about yours.

Indeed, and it didn’t take a silly “study” to prove it, either.

This study reminds me of the comments uber-fem Pat Schroeder recently made about how liberals were supposedly were smarter than conservatives because liberals ‘read more.’ She claimed to have gotten that information from an Associated Press-Ipsos poll, but when other people started digging into the stats of that poll, they couldn’t find the data to back up Schroeder’s claim.

Liberals: Either twisting poll data to fit their preconceived notions, or rigging the wording on a study in order to do the same. And they’re supposed to be smarter than we are? If they really were, you’d think they wouldn’t have to resort to these types of dishonest tactics.

And furthermore, I think a quick look at a Democrat convention or anti-war protest (but I repeat myself) would and should dispel anyone of the myth that liberals are smarter than conservatives. Case in point:

Michael Moore sits in the President’s Box
with Jimmy Carter during the 2004 DNC.