Are Smart People More Liberal?

Cognitive differences between liberals and conservatives

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The cognitive differences between liberals and conservatives are multifaceted, encompassing reflective versus intuitive thinking, moral foundations, structural emphases in moral judgment, brain structure and function, complexity, analytical thinking, motivated correction, and the processing of valenced information. These distinctions provide valuable insights into the psychological underpinnings of political ideology and highlight the diverse cognitive strategies employed by liberals and conservatives.

The cognitive differences between liberals and conservatives have been a subject of extensive research in political psychology. Various studies have explored how these ideological groups process information, make moral judgments, and respond to social problems. This article synthesizes findings from multiple research papers to provide a comprehensive overview of the cognitive distinctions between liberals and conservatives.

Cognitive Reflection and Ideology

Research indicates that liberals and conservatives exhibit different cognitive styles, particularly in terms of reflective and intuitive thinking. A series of studies using the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) found that social conservatives tend to be less reflective, while social liberals are more reflective. These differences in cognitive style are particularly pronounced in social attitudes and are resistant to manipulation through priming techniques1.

Moral Foundations and Language

The Moral Foundations Hypothesis posits that liberals and conservatives rely on different moral foundations. Liberals are more likely to emphasize care/harm and fairness/cheating, whereas conservatives focus on loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and purity/degradation. Studies have shown that conservatives use more authority and purity-related words, while liberals do not significantly differ in their use of harm and fairness words2. This suggests that the moral language of conservatives and liberals is distinct and reflects their underlying moral priorities.

Structural Emphases in Moral Judgment

Conservatives and liberals also differ in their structural approaches to moral judgment. Conservatives tend to emphasize the intrinsic value of actions, often mentally simulating themselves performing those actions. In contrast, liberals focus on the expected outcomes of actions. This structural emphasis is linked to the condemnation of victimless crimes by conservatives and their greater opposition to harm in scenarios like the trolley problem3.

Brain Structure and Function

Biological differences also play a role in the cognitive distinctions between liberals and conservatives. Studies have found that liberals have increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, while conservatives have more gray matter in the amygdala. Functional imaging during risk-taking tasks revealed that liberals show greater activity in the left insula, whereas conservatives exhibit more activity in the right amygdala. These findings suggest that liberals and conservatives engage different cognitive processes when thinking about risk4.

Complexity and Domain Specificity

The notion that liberals are more complex thinkers than conservatives has been challenged by research showing that complexity is domain-specific. While liberals may exhibit higher complexity in certain domains, conservatives can be more complex in others. This indicates that the cognitive complexity of liberals and conservatives is not universally different but varies depending on the topic5.

Analytical Thinking and Cultural Differences

Liberals tend to think more analytically, a trait associated with Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) cultures. Studies have shown that training individuals to think analytically can lead to more liberal opinions, while holistic thinking shifts opinions towards conservatism. This suggests that liberals and conservatives in the same country may think as if they were from different cultures6.

Motivated Correction and Social Problem Attribution

Liberals and conservatives generate different attributions for the causes of social problems. Research indicates that these differences are best explained by motivated correction, where individuals adjust their attributions based on their ideological motivations. This highlights the distinct cognitive strategies and motivational priorities of liberals and conservatives7.

Processing of Valenced Information

Conservatives and liberals differ in their processing of positive and negative information. Conservatives tend to weigh negative information more heavily and exhibit avoidance tendencies towards negative stimuli. This asymmetry in processing valenced information is largely independent of current processing goals and reflects fundamental cognitive differences between the two groups8.

Dual-Process Models of Moral Judgments

Dual-process models suggest that conservatives rely more on fast, emotional (System 1) processes, while liberals depend on slow, reasoned (System 2) processes. Experimental evidence supports this theory, showing that liberals take longer to respond to moral dilemmas under cognitive load, indicating a reliance on controlled reasoning. In contrast, conservatives’ response times are unaffected by cognitive load9.

Are smart people more liberal?

Idan Solon has answered Near Certain

An expert from Independent in Intelligence, Evolutionary Biology, Political Science

Let’s distinguish between the questions, “Are smart people more liberal?” and “Are liberals smarter?” 

(My interpretation is that the term “liberal” is being used in the United States sense of a consistent orientation toward the political left on economic, social, and foreign policy issues.)

This distinction is necessary because people of high intelligence orient consistently toward the political left on economic, social, and foreign policy issues.  But other demographics are also more likely to orient toward the political left (e.g., blacks, Hispanics, women, young people) and some of these demographics do not tend to have higher average intelligence than the overall population. 

On surveys, exit polls, and public opinion polls, if people are queried regarding their positions on single issue measures, there tends to be a monotonically positive relationship between intelligence and political leftism.  An exception is if the issue involves rights for a demographic that scores lower on intelligence tests, in which case there tends to be a left-wing orientation by that demographic on that issue. Consequently, on that issue, there tends to be a U-shaped relationship between intelligence and leftism, with the most intelligent and the least intelligent people orienting most toward the political left (Solon, 2008; 2010; 2014; 2015).  For example, poor people tend to test lower than the rest of the public on intelligence measures and tend to orient toward the left on economic issues. On economic issues, there tends to be a U-shaped relationship between intelligence and political leftism (Solon, 2014; 2015).  On social issues, poor people tend to orient more toward the right and there tends to be more of a monotonically positive relationship between intelligence and political leftism.  The general pattern by which people vote more toward the left on issues involving their own demographic is often assumed to be due to self-interest influence (e.g., Weeden and Kurzban, 2015), but I argue that it actually owes more to personal experience influence (Solon, 2014; 2015). 

In older literature, scholars have argued that the observable relationship between intelligence and leftism (Deary et al., 2008; Kanazawa, 2010) on measures relating to composites of issues (e.g., ideological identification, party affiliation) rather than single issues owes to a monotonically positive relationship between intelligence and right-wing positions on economic issues and a monotonically positive relationship between intelligence and left-wing positions on other issues (Carl, 2014; Pinker, 2011).  However, research indicates that even on economic issues, highly intelligent people orient more to the political left than people of more moderate intelligence (Solon, 2015).  Additionally, the Pew Research Center’s (e.g., 2004; 2009; 2014) political typology studies clearly identify a cluster of individuals that is the best educated (an indicator of intelligence) cluster and this cluster strongly orients toward the political left on economic, social, and foreign policy issues.  Furthermore, this general pattern—monotonically positive relationship between intelligence and leftism on most issues; U-shaped relationship between intelligence and leftism on economic issues—is also observable across ten European countries (TNS Sofres, 2005).  

Recent research suggests that if an individual’s intelligence is higher than the 87th percentile, any additional intelligence leads to a greater likelihood of identifying on the political left on composites of issues (Solon, 2015).  At the highest levels of intelligence, the left-right ratio is very high.  I found that individuals receiving elite recognition associated with high intelligence (e.g., Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, MacArthur Grant, Fields Medal, Putnam Competition, Jeopardy Tournament of Champions) are 17 times more likely to make political donations to the political left compared to the political right (Solon, 2014). 

Why do intelligent people orient strongly toward the left?  I argue it is because intelligent people are more likely to perceive an external control ideology and they are more empathetic and trusting toward people they do not know (Solon, 2014).  This leads to a greater likelihood of seeking to confer rights to minority demographics, which is at the core of what defines the political left relative to the political right. 

References: 

Carl, N. 2015. Does intelligence have a U-shaped relationship with leftism? Intelligence, 49: 159-170. 

Deary, I., Batty, G. and Gale, C. 2008. Childhood intelligence predicts voter turnout, voting preferences, and political involvement in adulthood: The 1970 British Cohort Study. Intelligence, 36: 548-555. 

Kanazawa, S. 2010. Why liberals and atheists are more intelligent. Social Psychology Quarterly, 73: 33-57.

Pew Research Center. 2004. Foreign policy attitudes now driven by 9/11 and Iraq.

Pew Research Center. 2005. Beyond red vs. blue.

Pew Research Center. 2009. A religious portrait of African Americans.

Pew Research Center. 2014. Beyond red vs. blue: political typology.

Pinker, S. 2011. The Better Angels of Our Nature. New York: Penguin.

Solon, I. 2008. The Intelligent Consensus. Morrisville, NC: Lulu.

Solon, I. 2010. The Intelligent Consensus. New York: Algora.

Solon, I. 2014. How intelligence mediates liberalism and prosociality. Intelligence, 47: 44-53. 

Solon, I. 2015. Scholarly elites orient left, irrespective of academic affiliation. Intelligence, 51: 119-130.

TNS Sofres. 2005. European values.

Weeden, J. and Kurzban, R. 2015. The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 

Are smart people more liberal?

Nachshon Meiran has answered Uncertain

An expert from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Intelligence

Complex. There are studies relating liberal-related beliefs such as atheism to high intelligence, but on the other hand, I am aware of at least one study (conducted in South America, possibly Brasil) showing that left wingers were less intelligent than people holding more central (not right-wing) opinions.