IQ (and 2000 Presidential Preference) By State

When I lived in Cambridge, back in the Thatcher era, my friends — especially David Howarth, now the LibDem Propective Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge — commonly called the Conservative Party (the Tories) the “stupid party”.

So what to make of this chart? (via Leiter)

At least Florida is only a tiny bit below average. I'm sure that when Jeb Bush gets done trashing our school system we will do worse here.

Yes, yes, I know, I know, IQ tests are a Really Lousy measure of what matters. Not only are the tests flawed, one-dimentional, and culturally biased (I recall being shocked by some of the questions on a test one of my kids took once, as it assumed things that were absolutely not part of our household) attempts to measure “intelligence”, but they don't even try to measure many things that do matter more — decency, honesty, kindness, for example.

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9 Responses to IQ (and 2000 Presidential Preference) By State

  1. Brett Bellmore says:

    I’d be interested in what percentage of the population actually got tested, and whether or not there was good reason to think they were a representative sample. But it’s quite common for Republicans to call their own party “the Stupid party”… Of course, they go on to contrast that with “the Evil party”. 😉

  2. It was John Stuart Mill who characterized conservatives as “the stupid party”.

    I thought you and your friends in Cambridge were college professors and all.

    –A guy from West Newton

  3. Barsk says:

    I must say it’s interesting, and not all that unexpected. What I’ve always found interesting is that it tends to be the lower income states that vote for the Republicans. Being from the upper midwest, and having driven all over the plains, I’ve always found it interesting how many people I met who talked about how Washington was rigged and how the rich were running things, and then said how they were voting republican and have always voted Rep.

  4. MP says:

    According to a new study by a professor at the University of Minnesota., Bill Clinton is considered one of the most intelligent presidents we’ve ever had, IQ-wise. What’s even more impressive is if you consider what he was thinking with most of the time.
    – Jay Leno

  5. Jeff says:

    Incidentally, when I quoted from this post on my blog, it started a lively discussion. (Obviating the need, apparently, for me to put up original content.)

  6. Steve Sailer says:

    Please alert your readers that the IQ by state table is a hoax. The source cited is Lynn and Vanhanen’s book “IQ and the Wealth of Nations.” I’ve read the book and reviewed it. It does _not_ contain a table of IQs by state, just, as the title suggests, by nation.

  7. Steve Sailer says:

    See http://www.iSteve.com for some actual data on smarts by state versus how they voted, as opposed to this fabricated data.

  8. Rik Anderson says:

    Average IQ by state data is reportedly a hoax, but so what. The US Census provides average education by state, and the correlation is incredible. Among states with over 25% holding bachelor’s degrees, all but 4 vote Democratic. Among states with under 25% holding bachelor’s degrees, all but three vote Republican. The states with better educated folks go Democratic. Too bad the electoral college is dominated by people who didn’t go to college.

  9. Greg says:

    I trust the claim that states vhere Bush won had lower incomes and IQs as much as I trusted the statement Bush had the lowest IQ of any modern President. The latter turned out to be nothing more than a leftist lie, I suspect the former is much the same.

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