I would love to know if this study took into account differences in age and other physical limitations...
From Slate:
Are liberals smarter than conservatives?
It looks that way, according to a study published this week in Nature Neuroscience. In a rapid response test—you press a button if you're given one signal, but not if you're given a different signal—the authors found that conservatives were "more likely to make errors of commission," whereas "stronger liberalism was correlated with greater accuracy." They concluded that "a more conservative orientation is related to greater persistence in a habitual response pattern, despite signals that this response pattern should change."
The columnist goes on to attempt to discredit the study (and doesn't really succeed in my book, but whatever). One point he does drive home, and one that I patently agree with, is that grand conclusions are being extrapolated from some very simplified response/stimuli interactions.
Is it really news that liberals on the whole might be smarter or more adept at responding to stimuli? After all, Democrats remind Republicans of this every election cycle, which is why that have had such a rough six years.
I will stop now before I look even more like part of the "vast right-wing conspiracy".
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They concluded that "a more conservative orientation is related to greater persistence in a habitual response pattern, despite signals that this response pattern should change."
Isn't that what "conservative" means - the tendency to want to hold on to the familiar, to conserve the power that is already in place? As in, "I fear change and uncertainty; therefore, I will hold on to my beliefs and fight for my right to have them rather than give in to the unknowns and variables of liberalism."
Just a friendly dig ;)
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