More than g : Verbal and performance IQ as predictors of socio-political attitudes.

ABSTRACT: Measures of intelligence predict socio-political attitudes and behaviors, such as liberalism, religiosity, and voter turnout. Little, however, is known about which cognitive abilities are responsible for these relationships. Employing several cohorts from the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research, we test the predictive performance of different broad abilities. Using multiple regression to compare verbal and performance IQ from Wechsler intelligence tests, we find verbal IQ more strongly predicts voter turnout, civic engagement, traditionalism, and measures of ideology. On average, the correlation between verbal IQ and our socio-political attitudes is twice as large as that of performance IQ. The same pattern appears after controlling for education and after performing the analysis

SUBMITTER: Edwards T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12716881 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature