In plain language
In an earlier five-year longitudinal study of adolescents, the authors reported that lower verbal intelligence in Grade 7 predicted stronger endorsement of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) — two ideological dimensions linked to intergroup prejudice — by Grade 12. Michael Woodley (2011) published a critique arguing, among other things, that these measures were problematic and that the results were better explained by a "cultural mediation" model, in which more intelligent people are simply more flexible at endorsing whatever ideology is normative in their society.
This reply addresses each criticism. The authors clarify that they treat RWA and SDO as measures of ideology, not personality, and never claimed authoritarianism is unique to the political right. They also challenge the assumption underlying the cultural mediation account — that the study's participants grew up in a liberal, left-leaning Australia — pointing out that from 1996 to 2007, spanning most of participants' childhoods, Australia had an avowedly conservative federal government.
Most importantly, at Woodley's suggestion the authors re-analysed their data using a General Factor of Personality (GFP), a proposed marker of the personality flexibility central to the cultural mediation model. The GFP did not explain away the intelligence-ideology link: low verbal ability still predicted both RWA and SDO after controlling for GFP and religious values, and the GFP was unrelated to RWA — a pattern hard to reconcile with the cultural mediation model. The authors conclude that their original interpretation stands: verbal intelligence influences the ideological perspective an individual comes to endorse.
Key findings
- New analyses substituting the General Factor of Personality (GFP) for the Big Five replicated the original results: Grade 7 general cognitive ability (g) still predicted Grade 12 right-wing authoritarianism after controlling for GFP and religious values.
- Low verbal ability (but not numerical ability) predicted Grade 12 RWA; low verbal ability also predicted SDO, alongside high numerical ability.
- The GFP was negatively related to SDO (r = -.32) but unrelated to RWA (r = -.04), a pattern inconsistent with the cultural mediation model's predictions.
- GFP did not uniquely account for variance in ideology above and beyond intelligence, failing to support a central hypothesis of the cultural mediation model.
- The authors argue RWA and SDO were used appropriately as ideological constructs (predictive of intergroup prejudice and hostility), not as personality measures, so Woodley's construct criticisms do not alter the interpretation.
- The assumption that participants were socialised in a liberal society is questioned: Australia had a conservative right-of-centre federal government from 1996 to 2007, when participants were roughly 5 to 16 years old.
How to cite
APA
Leeson, P., Heaven, P. C. L., & Ciarrochi, J. (2012). Revisiting the link between low verbal intelligence and ideology. Intelligence. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2011.11.006
BibTeX
@article{leeson2012revisiting,
author = {Leeson, Peter and Heaven, Patrick C. L. and Ciarrochi, Joseph},
title = {Revisiting the link between low verbal intelligence and ideology},
journal = {Intelligence},
year = {2012},
doi = {10.1016/j.intell.2011.11.006}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.