The Wonderlic Personnel Test and elementary cognitive tasks as predictors of religious sectarianism, scriptural acceptance and religious questioning☆

Intelligence and religiosity: Within families and over time

“…Finally, the current study is consistent with the cumulative evidence about the negative effect of intelligence on religiosity (e.g., Bertsch & Pesta, 2009;Kanazawa, 2010;Lynn et al, 2009;Nyborg, 2009;Reeve, 2009;Reeve & Basalik, 2011), and with the views that intelligence, because of its association with rationalism, skepticism, and feeling of control over nature, leads to secularism (e.g., Frazer, 1922;Inglehart & Welzel, 2005;Kuhlen & Arnold, 1944). The main contribution of the current study is that it examines the relationship between intelligence and religiosity within families and over time.…”

“…(Bell, 2002, see also, Beckwith, 1986 for similar results). Following the publication of Dawkins' (2006) book, there was a resurgence in studies that relied on more refined methodologies than earlier studies, either by using large representative samples and better controls (Ganzach, Ellis, & Gotlibovski, 2013;Kanazawa, 2010) or a larger number of measurements of intelligence (Bertsch & Pesta, 2009). These studies too found a negative relationship between intelligence and religiosity.…”

Expanding the g-nexus: Further evidence regarding the relations among national IQ, religiosity and national health outcomes

“…He suggests that this stratification occurs because people gravitate towards denominations that provide a match with their level of cognitive complexity. Similarly, Bertsch and Pesta (2009) found that intelligence, specifically information processing ability, was negatively associated with literal acceptance of religious scriptures and sectarianism, and positively related to religious questioning. At the national level, Lynn et al (2009) found a correlation of r = .60 between national atheism rates and average IQ.…”

“…For example, Howells (1928) and Sinclair (1928) both reported studies documenting a negative correlation between intelligence and religious beliefs. More recently, researchers have incorporated this relationship into the g-nexus (e.g., Bertsch & Pesta, 2009;Lynn et al, 2009;Nyborg, 2009).…”

Well-being and economic freedom: Evidence from the States

“…Since health and increased life expectancy should increase well-being, this mixed signal complicates the expected effect of religiosity on well-being. It also appears that high levels of IQ and education are associated with lower levels of religiosity at the national level (Glaeser & Sacerdote, 2008;Lynn, Harvey, & Nyborg, 2008) and at the individual level (Bertsch & Pesta, 2009). Furthermore, Barro and McCleary (2003) reported that church attendance and economic growth are negatively correlated across countries.…”