Although it's been well-documented by researchers that dumb people tend to be more prejudiced, a new study has found that irrational hate isn't exclusive to dim bulbs.
Instead, as the study revealed, people at both the high and low ends of the intelligence spectrum tend to express equal levels of prejudice — the only difference between them is who they irrationally hate. What kind of bigot you are depends almost exclusively on your smarts.
The researchers, social psychologists Mark Brandt and Jarret Crawford, analyzed 5,914 subjects in their experiment, "Answering Unresolved Questions About the Relationship Between Cognitive Ability and Prejudice." Removing all value judgments about whether a specific prejudice is justified or not, they measured the amount of prejudice present in groups of both higher intelligence and lower intelligence, gaging each group's cognitive ability with a wordsum test.
Brandt and Crawford found that people of low intelligence tend to hate non-conventional or liberal groups, as well as people that have "low choice" in their status, a.k.a were characterized by traits they couldn't control like race, gender or sexual orientation. The stupider people were, the more they hated the gays, wanted the Mexicans deported, and believed women occupy a lower social status than men.
The researchers explained this by citing prior research that unintelligent people often "essentialize," or see different groups as being distinct from each other, with "clear boundaries."
"Having clear boundaries helps people feel like the opposing group is distinct and far away. That is, they won't be so much of a threat," they said.
This finding is especially relevant in light of Donald Trump's idiotic plan to build a big fat wall along the Mexican border — it would create a literal boundary where before only a mental one existed. Donald Trump, then, would be considered of low intelligence … seeing such distinct boundaries between Americans and the Mexicans that want to be Americans is indicative of low IQ, according to the study.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, hate trends seemed to be inverted among highly intelligent people. In other words, the more cognitively capable participants were likely to hate more conventional or conservative groups, as well as people considered to have "high choice" in their associations. A "high choice" association, for those wondering, would be choosing to be pro-life, or choosing to be a gun-toting Second Amendment psycho. Thus, intelligent people hate you not because of what you were born like, because you consciously make choices they disagree with.
Yet, both stupid and smart people know fine and well that wanton hate doesn't do anyone good. So, why do people innately throw shade at each other when they know it's wrong?
"People dislike people who are different from them," Brandt and Crawford explained in an interview with Broadly. "Derogating people with different world views can help people maintain the validity of their own world view."
Translation: if you see the world one way, you don't want anyone to challenge that because — god forbid — it could threaten everything you know about existence. People feel safe in knowing their own realities are true, and when other people's realities impinge upon theirs, they lash out in defense. It's immature and occasionally even fatal, but it's also a weird natural instinct we have to keep ourselves safe.
Meanwhile, does us hating the Planned Parenthood shooter mean we can get in to Harvard? Just that logic alone should qualify us for a student loan …
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