Cognitive Ability Rivals the Effect of Political Sophistication on Ideological Voting

Abstract

This article examines the impact of cognitive ability on ideological voting. We find, using a U.S. sample and a Danish sample, that the effect of cognitive ability rivals the effect of the traditionally strongest predictor of ideological voting, political sophistication. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the effect of cognitive ability being partly mediated by political sophistication. Much of the effect of cognitive ability remains, however, and is not explained by differences in education or openness to experience either. The implications of these results for democratic theory are discussed.

When and why does education matter? Motivation and resource effects in political efficacy

“…; Persson ; Rosenstone & Hansen ; Tenn ). Distinguishing between absolute motivational effects and relative resource effects of education has allowed us to engage a growing literature that has found psychological dispositions like personality traits to confound some of the educational effect on political enlightenment and engagement (Kam & Palmer ; Rasmussen , ). We argue that personal dispositions confound the motivational and cognitive effects of education but not relative resource effects.…”

“…Absolute effects mainly emanate from the boost in motivations and cognition that education gives rise to, whereas relative effects mainly stem from the comparative advantages that highly educated individuals enjoy in terms of resources, social standing and access to political networks (Campbell 2009;Nie et al 1996;Persson 2011;Rosenstone & Hansen 1993;Tenn 2005). Distinguishing between absolute motivational effects and relative resource effects of education has allowed us to engage a growing literature that has found psychological dispositions like personality traits to confound some of the educational effect on political enlightenment and engagement (Kam & Palmer 2008;Rasmussen 2015Rasmussen , 2016. We argue that personal dispositions confound the motivational and cognitive effects of education but not relative resource effects.…”

Do Smarter People Have More Conservative Economic Attitudes? Assessing the Relationship Between Cognitive Ability and Economic Ideology

“…However, terms like “economically conservative” or “economically liberal” are inherently vague and may be interpreted in very different ways by different respondents, especially when people have a poor understanding of economic concepts (see Bauer et al, 2017 ). In contrast, operational ideology focuses on preferences for concrete policy proposals (e.g., whether an individual should be more responsible for himself or the public sector should be responsible for taking care of all; Rasmussen, 2016 ). The two dimensions of ideological thinking do not necessarily have to be congruent.…”

“…Although there are some psychometrically tested scales (e.g., Everett, 2013 ; Henningham, 1997 ), instruments to measure economic policy attitudes are usually formed ad hoc, which makes it difficult to compare the correlations obtained with cognitive abilities. While the internal reliability of these ad hoc scales is often quite high (e.g., Kirkegaard et al, 2017 ; Lewis & Bates, 2018 ; Rasmussen, 2016 ), their construct validity is rarely tested. Thus, the inconclusiveness of the results described in the literature review may also be due to the heterogeneity of the measurement of economic ideologies.…”

“…Outside the United States, Oskarsson et al (2015) observed that higher levels of intelligence were related to preferences for privatization, lower taxes, and less redistribution of wealth among Swedish male twin pairs. Ludeke and Rasmussen (2018, Study 2) matched ability test scores from Danish draftees with survey data on economic attitudes and found a positive relationship between intelligence and economic laissez-faire orientations (see also Rasmussen, 2016).…”