New meta-analysis checks the correlation between intelligence and faith

[rug]

First systematic analysis of its kind even proposes reasons for the negative correlation.



The relationship between countries' belief in a god and national average IQ.

by Akshat Rathi - Aug 11 2013, 6:30pm EDT

More than 400 years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, Greek playwright Euripides wrote in his play Bellerophon, “Doth some one say that there be gods above? There are not; no, there are not. Let no fool, led by the old false fable, thus deceive you.”

Euripides was not an atheist and only used the word “fool” to provoke his audience. But, if you look at the studies conducted over the past century, you will find that those with religious beliefs will, on the whole, score lower on tests of intelligence. That is the conclusion of psychologists Miron Zuckerman and Jordan Silberman of the University of Rochester and Judith Hall of Northeastern University, who have published a meta-analysis in Personality and Social Psychology Review.

This is the first systematic meta-analysis of 63 studies conducted in between 1928 and 2012. In such an analysis, the authors look at each study’s sample size, quality of data collection, and analysis methods, then account for biases that may have inadvertently crept into the work. This data is next refracted through the prism of statistical theory to draw an overarching conclusion of what scholars in this field find. “Our conclusion,” as Zuckerman puts it, “is not new.”

“If you count the number of studies which find a positive correlation against those that find a negative correlation, you can draw the same conclusion because most studies find a negative correlation,” added Zuckerman. But that conclusion would be qualitative, because the studies’ methods vary. “What we have done is to draw that conclusion more accurately through statistical analysis.”

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/08/new-meta-analysis-checks-the-correlation-between-intelligence-and-faith/

Here's the abstract. The study is behind a firewall.

http://psr.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/08/02/1088868313497266

I can't wait for some intelligent responses.

[cbayer]

1. I'm having trouble opening the article, but I would question the validity of any

study that used IQ testing as a measure of intelligence across different countries or cultures. IQ testing is notoriously biased towards certain culture and levels of education.

As 100 is supposed to the the average, it makes no sense that there are countries that are showing average IQ's of 65 and, if anything, reinforces that concept that these tests are biased.

Interestingly, when you get up to the countries where the average does appear to be around 100, there seems to be much scatter in the percentage of atheists and I don't see any obvious correlation.

I do think the evidence linking degree of religiosity to levels of poverty are pretty conclusive at this point. Poverty also effects performance on intelligence measures and level of education.

Aha! It finally opened. I see that they weren't able to correlate anything either way, lol!

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. There ought to be as many dots above 100 as below.

Does the fact that I'm agnostic render me uniquely able to recognize that?

[cbayer]

6. Correct. That is the point that I was trying to make as well.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. I guess the rest of the world is the opposite of Lake Woebegone; no one is above average. n/t

[dimbear]

26. Let me take a whack at why that's not so.

Each dot is a country. Most countries will average in at about 100, plus or minus a bit. Just two countries, China and India, make up almost a third of the world. Naturally their IQ numbers will be very close to average. There are some outliers, small countries in the third world mostly, isolated, which test very low. They represent just a few people. There aren't any countries which test very high because if there were, their evolutionary advantage would spread. That isn't happening.

[Jim__]

3. It appears that only about 13 out of 137 countries are of average or above intelligence ...

... if I'm understanding the graph correctly. And, I agree with what you are saying, a high number of whole countries score at about the mentally retarded range. It would be interesting to read the whole study.

[cbayer]

7. And from what I did see, the bulk of those studied (87%) were from western countries.

[rug]

11. Yea, Wilson and Sociobiolgy gave IQ scores a bad reputation.

Don't get me started on Shockley.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. The graph is just one of the 63 studies

and the Ars Technica article says about that study "the study came under criticism from Gordon Lynch of Birkbeck College, because it did not account for complex social, economical, and historical factors."

I would say the crucial summary of the article is:

Out of 63 studies, 53 showed a negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity, while 10 showed a positive one. Significant negative correlations were seen in 35 studies, whereas only two studies showed significant positive correlations.

And the "more than 87% were from US, Canada, UK" does mean it's really restricted to those 3 countries (and the studies go back a long way, so many of the UK studies may also have been in a significant Christian majority country. So the 'more intelligent = less likely to conform' hypothesis might explain a lot of it.

[cbayer]

16. My read was that although they found a higher number of studies with

negative correlation, that there really was no way to substantiate correlation at all, which is what I would expect.

Basically it looks like all the research that has been done in this area is significantly flawed and should not be used to make a case either way.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. I'm not sure what you mean by 'substantiating' correlation

as opposed to finding it.

[cbayer]

18. Because other studies had claimed to have made a correlation,

I noted that this meta study was not able to substantiate their claims.

They didn't do their own studies, as far as I can tell. They just looked at the data produced by other studies and found major flaws.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. A meta study is defiend as 'looking at other studies and not doing their own'

They found some flaws; but they found significant negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity in 35, and positive correlation in just 2. That is notable. The paper's abstract says:

A meta-analysis of 63 studies showed a significant negative association between intelligence and religiosity. The association was stronger for college students and the general population than for participants younger than college age; it was also stronger for religious beliefs than religious behavior.

There's nothing saying there are major flaws in general. Ars Technica points out:

Finally, not all studies reviewed are of equal quality, and some of them have been criticized by other researchers. But that is exactly why meta-analyses are performed. They help overcome limitations of sample size, poor data, and questionable analyses of individual studies.

[cbayer]

22. I am very familiar with what a meta study is, muriel.

The correlation they found could not reasonably be linked to intelligence, but it could be correlated with the results of the intelligence tests which were administered. The graph posted in the OP tells the tale quite well.

If some countries are showing average IQ's in the 65 range, one should really question the validity of those tests as equitably and validly measuring intelligence. IQ tests are notoriously biased.

So, yes they found some correlation with how people do on those tests. They also note that the reasons for this are very, very multifactorial and may not really reflect on an intelligence/religion negative correlation.

But, the fact is, now that yahoo has completely distorted their findings in the headline, this will be trotted out and worn like a banner by those who want to feel superior. That's really too bad. Those that may see themselves as intellectually superior will in most likelihood not look critically at the actual study here and those are the ones I would hope would do so.


But go ahead. If people want to take the position that atheists are smarter than believers based on this, they are free to do so. They don't have good data to back that up, but they can always point to this meta analysis, even though it doesn't conclude that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. No, the graph posted in the OP does not tell the tale at all

The graph in the OP is from one study; reading carefully, I now realise that it's not actually clear that it is one of the 63 studies. Ars Technica brings it in to the discussion thus:

Is there a chance that higher intelligence makes people less religious? Two sets of large scale studies tried to answer this question.

The first are based on the Terman cohort of the gifted, started in 1921 by Lewis Terman, a psychologist at Stanford University.
...
The second set of studies is based on students of New York’s Hunter College Elementary School for the intellectually gifted.
...
Other studies on the topic have been ambiguous. A 2009 study, led by Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster, compared religious beliefs and average national IQs of 137 countries.

That last study is the one the graph is from. Ars Technica does not actually specify that it is one of the ones used in the meta-analysis.

The studies used for the meta-analysis are not just using IQ tests:

In the various studies being examined, analytic intelligence has been measured in many different ways, including GPA (grade point average), UEE (university entrance exams), Mensa membership, and Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests among others.

As for the Yahoo headline in the other thread that you object to so much, I'll remind you of the opening of the paper's abstract: "a meta-analysis of 63 studies showed a significant negative association between intelligence and religiosity."

[cbayer]

24. You are correct about the title.

I had read the critical analysis here, but had not read the actual abstract.

I disagree with the conclusions of those that did the analysis, then. I think the 3 reasons for the finding that they point at are not extensive or conclusive enough and tend to agree more with some of the resoning put forth in the other article.

Incidentally, atheists are more likely to be white, straight, male, educated, employed and financially stable as well. Do you think that might play a role here? Or is that group presumably more intelligent as well?

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. I presume you're talking about American atheists

because there are, for example, a lot of Chinese atheists in the world.

" Do you think that might play a role here? Or is that group presumably more intelligent as well?"

When you say "that group", do you mean the group consisting of people who are all of "white, straight, male, educated, employed and financially stable"?

Certainly, there is a correlation between intelligence and being educated, employed and financially stable, and fairly obvious mechanisms for causation. There might be something to the 'opium of the people' hypothesis, which seems to be what you're getting at.

I was unaware that atheists are more likely to be straight than believers are. That is surprising, given that many religions denigrate LGBT people.

[cbayer]

28. There is also a correlation between being part of a privilege class and

being educated. Education is not wholly a result of level of intelligence, but very often heavily influenced by social class, color, financial resources, level of education of the parents, etc.

The LGBT connection (or lack of it) is probably also multifactorial. Marginalized populations often seek out affirming congregations for support and asylum. LGBT people may also have more to risk by identifying as atheist and that may account for it as well.

[Jim__]

4. "More than 87 percent of the participants were from the US, the UK, and Canada."

Zuckerman also warns that, despite there being thousands of participants overall ranging among all ages, almost all of them belong to Western society. More than 87 percent of the participants were from the US, the UK, and Canada. So after controlling for other factors, they can only confidently show strong negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity among American Protestants. For Catholicism and Judaism, the correlation may be less negative.

[spin]

5. Mensa members are supposed to be very intelligent so I decided to see how many are religious. ...

10 What kind of people are Members of Mensa?

Description

This article is from the Mensa FAQ, by Phil Hill [e-mail] with numerous contributions by others.

Mensa: We Think, Therefore We Are. Mensans are the kind of people you
meet every day ... except that they enjoy using their minds more than
most. And they have IQ scores that would impress their neighbors!

Today there are some 100,000 Mensans in 100 countries throughout the
world. There are active Mensa organizations in 18 countries in Europe,
North America and around the Pacific Rim. American Mensa, Ltd. has
some 150 local chapters with more than 50,000 members. Founded at
Oxford University in 1946, Mensa has three stated purposes: to identify
and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity, to encourage
research in the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence, and to
promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its
members.

***snip***

Mensans range in age from 4 to 94, but most are between 20 and 49. In
education they range from preschoolers to high school dropouts to people
with multiple doctorates. There are Mensans on welfare and Mensans who
are millionaires. As far as occupations, the range is staggering.
Mensa has professors and truck drivers, scientists and firefighters,
computer programmers and farmers, artists, military people, musicians,
laborers, police officers, glassblowers - you name it. There are famous
Mensans and prize-winning Mensans, but there are many, many whose names
you wouldn't know.

* MENSA DEMOGRAPHICS (USA)

***snip***

49% Christian, 3% Unitarian, 9% Jewish, 7% agnostic, 3.6% atheist,
9% no religion

Read more: http://stason.org/TULARC/self-growth/mensa/10-What-kind-of-people-are-Members-of-Mensa.html#.UgkUm8u9KSM#ixzz2bm8mWEFH

I had no idea how my search would turn out but I have to admit that I am surprised that so many people who have intelligence test scores in the top 2% of the population would members of a religious faith. I would have suspected the majority would have claimed to be atheist, agnostics or to have no religion.

[cbayer]

9. I don't find this surprising at all.

It appears to reflect the population as a whole to some degree, which is what one would expect.

Further complicating it is that MENSA is a voluntary organization and one would wonder about the personality characteristics of those that would choose to join an organization that basically just says they are smarter than most people.

Interesting that Muslims apparently do not join.

[spin]

10. In high school I had a close friend who was a member of Mensa. ...

His dad was a member and got him to take the test. My friend didn't brag about the fact that he had a high intelligence level. He got high grades in math and science but struggled with English.

He did win the Ohio science fair by devising a more accurate method of predicting when a satellite would pass over an area than the one NASA was using.

[cbayer]

14. Don't get me wrong, I like super intelligent people.

And sometimes, but not always, they are ostracized or ridiculed, so I think there is probably a place for organizations where they can socialize without being made fun of. I wonder if the membership includes a higher than average number of people with Asperger's.

That's a cool story about your friend. There are some great websites that will tell you exactly where and when to look to the night sky for seeing satellites and other bodies. We actually saw the space shuttle chasing MIR one night and finally connect with it. It was amazing.

[okasha]

20. Unfortunately, being in that top 2%

does not correlate to being able to find your glasses in the morning--especially when the kittehs have done something interesting with them--or forgetting the eggs until you're four blocks from the grocery store.

[dimbear]

21. The Mensa data you quote tells us they are far more nonreligious than the average in America,

far more Jewish than the average in America, and far less Christian.
Just what we all expected.

A nice support to the OP's point.

To get into an intellectual stratum where the majority claim to be nonreligious you need to go all the way to famous physicists or some similar high plateau.

[spin]

27. The data on scientists closely matches members of Mensa. ...

NOVEMBER 5, 2009
Scientists and Belief

****snip***

A survey of scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in May and June 2009, finds that members of this group are, on the whole, much less religious than the general public.1 Indeed, the survey shows that scientists are roughly half as likely as the general public to believe in God or a higher power. According to the poll, just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. By contrast, 95% of Americans believe in some form of deity or higher power, according to a survey of the general public conducted by the Pew Research Center in July 2006. Specifically, more than eight-in-ten Americans (83%) say they believe in God and 12% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. Finally, the poll of scientists finds that four-in-ten scientists (41%) say they do not believe in God or a higher power, while the poll of the public finds that only 4% of Americans share this view.
http://www.pewforum.org/2009/11/05/scientists-and-belief/

But I was surprised to read this article:

Science and Religion Do Mix? Only 15 Percent of Scientists at Major Research Universities See Religion and Science Always in Conflict

Sep. 23, 2011 — Throughout history, science and religion have appeared as being in perpetual conflict, but a new study by Rice University suggests that only a minority of scientists at major research universities see religion and science as requiring distinct boundaries.

"When it comes to questions about the meaning of life, ways of understanding reality, origins of Earth and how life developed on it, many have seen religion and science as being at odds and even in irreconcilable conflict," said Rice sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund. But a majority of scientists interviewed by Ecklund and colleagues viewed both religion and science as "valid avenues of knowledge" that can bring broader understanding to important questions, she said.

***snip***

They interviewed a scientifically selected sample of 275 participants, pulled from a survey of 2,198 tenured and tenure-track faculty in the natural and social sciences at 21 elite U.S. research universities. Only 15 percent of those surveyed view religion and science as always in conflict. Another 15 percent say the two are never in conflict, and 70 percent believe religion and science are only sometimes in conflict. Approximately half of the original survey population expressed some form of religious identity, whereas the other half did not.

***snip***

Other findings:
*Scientists as a whole are substantially different from the American public in how they view teaching "intelligent design" in public schools. Nearly all of the scientists -- religious and nonreligious alike -- have a negative impression of the theory of intelligent design.
*Sixty-eight percent of scientists surveyed consider themselves spiritual to some degree.
*Scientists who view themselves as spiritual/religious are less likely to see religion and science in conflict.
*Overall, under some circumstances even the most religious of scientists were described in very positive terms by their nonreligious peers; this suggests that the integration of religion and science is not so distasteful to all scientists.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110921115923.htm

However the famous physicist, Stephen Hawking, has written a book "The Grand Design, which supposedly explains the universe without God." (ref: http://creation.com/stephen-hawking-god)

[eShirl]

12. no data for people above 110 IQ?

why not?

[cbayer]

15. I think those are averages within specific countries.