Can intelligence explain the overrepresentation of liberals and leftists in American academia?

Carl, Noah

doi:10.1016/j.intell.2015.10.008

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Thus, the present study lends empirical support to the criticisms concerning ideological bias, both in terms of objectivity and choice of explanatory factors. As mentioned in the introduction, there are several ways in which an ideological outlook may interfere with scientific endeavors (e.g., Carl 2015 ; Klein and Stern 2009 ; Koertge 1998 ). It would be unfortunate for the area of Gender studies if these issues ultimately would challenge the scientific value of the field.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much of these deviations from mainstream science are subsumed under the label “feminist epistemology”, which is reviewed together with its main thrusts of criticism by philosopher of science Elizabeth Anderson ( 2015 ). Ideology is often thought to hinder the pursuit of truth and scientifically based knowledge, for the apparent reason that it tends to limit the search space of explanations and co-variates, bias the interpretation of data, and favor methods that provide the answers one wishes to get (e.g., Carl 2015 ; Klein and Stern 2009 ; Koertge 1998 ). From this perspective, it has been observed that Gender studies is closely related to the feminist movement, an activist agenda, and associated ideologies (Curthoys 2014 ; Liinason 2011 ; Lykke et al 2007 ) with influences from postmodernism (Brodribb 1993 ), relativism (Friedman 1997 ), and critical theory (Bergman 2000 ; Thurén 2002 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Objectivity and realms of explanation in academic journal articles concerning sex/gender: a comparison of Gender studies and the other social sciences

Söderlund

Madison

2017

Scientometrics

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Gender studies (GS) has been challenged on epistemological grounds. Here, we compare samples of peer-reviewed academic journal publications written by GS authors and authors from closely related disciplines in the social sciences. The material consisted of 2805 statements from 36 peer-reviewed journal articles, sampled from the Swedish Gender Studies List, which covers >12,000 publications. Each statement was coded as expressing a lack of any of three aspects of objectivity: Bias, Normativity, or Political activism, or as considering any of four realms of explanation for the behaviours or phenomena under study: Biology/genetics, Individual/group differences, Environment/culture, or Societal institutions. Statements in GS publications did to a greater extent express bias and normativity, but not political activism. They did also to a greater extent consider cultural, environmental, social, and societal realms of explanation, and to a lesser extent biological and individual differences explanations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Objectivity and realms of explanation in academic journal articles concerning sex/gender: a comparison of Gender studies and the other social sciences

Söderlund

Madison

2017

Scientometrics

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“…Some scholars maintain that students in the humanities and social sciences are systematically more liberal than their counterparts in engineering and the natural sciences due to the difference in subject matter and approach (Carl 2015;Shermer 2016). Since liberal political outlooks are associated with more critical attitudes toward Israel and more accepting attitudes toward Jews (Gries 2015;Lipset and Raab 1995), our third hypothesis is that students' choice of major will affect their attitudes:…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Empirical Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antisemitism on a California Campus: Perceptions and Views Among Students

Shenhav-Goldberg

Kopstein

2020

Cont Jewry

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This article explores the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes among university students. Critics maintain that hostility toward Israel is an indicator of the "new antisemitism." Activists and their advocates insist that anti-Israel attitudes and behaviors reflect a political conflict and have little to do with antisemitism. Existing empirical scholarship shows a strong link. Evidence is presented from a survey of a random sample (N = 468) of undergraduate students at the University of California, Irvine. The results show a modest but statistically significant correlation between antisemitic and anti-Israel attitudes. However, the evidence also shows that the two sets of attitudes are mostly separate. Multivariate analysis demonstrates that anti-Israel attitudes are the strongest predictors of antisemitism even in the presence of other hypothesized determinants. The article also explores the demographic factors contributing to simultaneously high levels of antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes. Contrary to much commentary, but consonant with a significant stream of scholarship, campus effects are weak to nonexistent.

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“…It has also been hypothesized to increase citizens’ willingness to participate in politics (Brady et al, 1995; Hillygus, 2005; Berinsky and Lenz, 2011), promote tolerance toward social out-groups (Bobo and Licari, 1989; Deary et al, 2008; Wodtke, 2016), and reduce political attitude extremity (Makowsky and Miller, 2014). Scholars have also taken a recent interest in investigating whether or not highly intelligent individuals hold different symbolic and operational ideological orientations (Ellis and Stimson’s (2012) terminology) than those who are less intelligent (Carl, 2014, 2015a,b,c; Solon, 2014; Meisenberg, 2015), or if they are less likely to engage in partisan-motivated reasoning (Kahan et al, 2012, 2013; Mérola and Hitt, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What do interviewer intelligence ratings actually measure?

Motta

2016

Research & Politics

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Political scientists interested in studying the political implications of citizens' cognitive abilities often turn to readily available "intelligence ratings" in the American National Election Studies (ANES). These ratings are generally thought to represent respondents' cognitive abilities, albeit imperfectly. I hypothesize that these ratings do not reflect moreobjective tests of cognitive ability, and instead better capture considerations related to the political subject of the interviews and other contextual factors. In the 2012 ANES, which contained a cognitive ability test ("Wordsum"), I find that political engagement and demographic factors but not actual measurements of cognitive ability are associated with interviewer intelligence rating scores. In bivariate analyses, verbal intelligence and interviewer ratings are moderately correlated with one another, consistent with conventional wisdom. But this correlation is a spurious one, as the same is also true for political engagement, education, and household income. Further, in multivariate models, Wordsum scores were neither statistically nor substantively predictive of interviewer ratings. The results suggest that interviewer ratings are better understood as proxies for political engagement, not cognitive ability. I conclude by arguing that the growing importance of studying cognitive ability in political science makes it necessary to include more-objective verbal intelligence tests more frequently in public opinion surveys.

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Can intelligence explain the overrepresentation of liberals and leftists in American academia?

Cited by 14 publications

References 82 publications

Objectivity and realms of explanation in academic journal articles concerning sex/gender: a comparison of Gender studies and the other social sciences

Objectivity and realms of explanation in academic journal articles concerning sex/gender: a comparison of Gender studies and the other social sciences

Antisemitism on a California Campus: Perceptions and Views Among Students

What do interviewer intelligence ratings actually measure?

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