COMMENTARY | We’ve probably all heard the assertion at some point during heated political discussions. But it held no factual weight and was reduced to an ad hominem fallacy — until now. However, when someone makes the assertion that conservatives are stupid racists, apparently there’s scientific evidence to back that claim.
Live Science reports a study indicates a positive correlation between social conservatism, low I.Q and prejudice. It does point out that this refers to averages over a large sector of the population. One explanation for the finding includes the idea that people with lower intelligence are more likely to just embrace authoritarian right-wing ideologies than think for themselves. They are also more likely to emphasize hierarchy and be resistant to change, a combination which leads to prejudice.
A battle between conservatives and science is sure to ensue. Of course, it won’t be the first. There’s the scientific idea Earth is 4.5 billion years old vs. the creationist belief that it’s 6,000 years old. There’s the notion that stem cells could cure some of our most debilitating diseases vs. the idea that the use of them is morally wrong. There’s the theory that humans evolved over time vs. the conviction that we were created in a single day. We can now add to this list the scientific argument that conservatives are prejudiced idiots vs. the claim that scientists made that up.
I’m not upset by this study or its findings. What does bother me is the election-year timing of its release. I’m not a right-wing conservative and I’m definitely smart enough to see that there will be accusations that the study was politically motivated. And the last thing people who already tend to distrust science need is reason to believe that it just makes things up to suit its needs.
Like matter itself, facts can neither be created nor destroyed. They just exist. And it’s up to us to figure out what they are. But to release a study of this nature probably isn’t going to convince many conservatives to give scientific considerations more credence. In fact, it’s more likely to cause them to reject science even more vehemently. It’s also going to result in accusations that scientists are prejudiced and moronic.
Science and conservatism seem to mix about as well as oil and water. Whether that is related to lower IQs or not is apparently no longer up for debate. From here, the discussion can pretty much only spiral into an “am not” “are too” type debate.
When scientists get involved in political issues, it hurts people’s perceptions of its objectivity. When conservative politicians get involved in scientific issues, we end up with out-of-left-field proposals like creating moon colonies during times of economic trouble. Sometimes it seems like human nature is to be stupid and biased and that none of us are totally immune to that. Then again, I’m a centrist so that could be the conservative part of me speaking…