Monday, November 08, 2004

IQ by state

There's a chart going around with IQ figures by state, and which candidate the state voted for. The punchline seems to be that stupid people vote for Bush.

Now, I can't find any authoritative source for IQ averages by state. There are some studies based on SAT/ACT scores or National Assessment of Educational Progress, but the differences between states are minor. Moreover, neither candidate monopolizes the "smarter" voters.

However, this particular chart appears to have been made from a correlation between income and IQ. So if a state's average income is low, its average IQ is assumed to be low. Very unscientific, but a lot of people are ready to believe it.

Amusingly, this means the contempt some liberals are feeling for red states based on this chart is actually illiberal contempt for the poor; the pride they are feeling is pride in being rich.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Perhaps they should instead be feeling a very liberal (and patronizing) pity for the poor saps who vote against their own economic interests.
-AD

8:20 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home