The Relationship between Intelligence and Ideological Views

Literature on the association between political views and intelligence has largely focused on the linear relationship between the two variables, with nonlinear relationships between them being rarely examined. The National Longitudinal Study of Youth (1979), a cohort of about 10,000 youth born between 1957 and 1963 who were administered the ASVAB in 1981, were used as a source of data. IQ and support for the Republican Party were related within Whites (r = .13, p < .001), Hispanics (r = .12, p < .001), and Blacks (r = -.073, p < .001). Within Blacks, IQ and support for the Republican Party were curvilinearly associated. Support for the Republican Party was highest among highly intelligent and unintelligent Blacks (F = 18, p <.001). IQ and conservative gender attitudes negatively correlated within all races, but this relationship did not hold in individuals with an IQ above 115, even within the large White subsample (r = -.005, p = .85, n = 1060).