Spyke

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Predicting political beliefs with polygenic scores for cognitive performance and educational attainment

Abstract

Intelligence is correlated with a range of left-wing and liberal political beliefs. This may suggest intelligence directly alters our political views. Alternatively, the association may be confounded or mediated by socioeconomic and environmental factors. We studied the effect of intelligence within a sample of over 300 biological and adoptive families, using both measured IQ and polygenic scores for cognitive performance and educational attainment. We found both IQ and polygenic scores significantly predicted all six of our political scales. Polygenic scores predicted social liberalism and lower authoritarianism, within-families. Intelligence was able to significantly predict social liberalism and lower authoritarianism, within families, even after controlling for socioeconomic variables. Our findings may provide the strongest causal inference to date of intelligence directly affecting political beliefs.

Predicting political beliefs with polygenic scores for cognitive performance and educational attainmenthttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11308703/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
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atheism·AtheismbyTedesche

Atheists still believe in the supernatural, new report finds (2019 article)

Posting this because I think it's an interesting examination of the overlap (or lack thereof) between atheists and general skeptics. It's worth remembering that the term 'atheism' only means a rejection of theistic beliefs; non-theistic beliefs that are nonetheless irrational and unsupported by evidence are not relevant to the term. And yet one can easily see why there is an overlap between these two communities and why many atheists scoff at other atheists who profess belief in things like astrology, ghosts, reincarnation, etc.

I'm definitely one of those who doesn't believe in anything supernatural, but I've certainly met atheists who do. It's worth remembering the two groups aren't synonymous.

Atheists still believe in the supernatural, new report finds (2019 article)https://bigthink.com/thinking/atheist-supernatural/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
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