Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent

2010/02/16 by Satoshi Kanazawa
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Atheism #Cultural Differences and Values #Developmental psychology #Epistemology #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Liberalism #Politics #Psychology #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social psychology #Value (mathematics)

paper · doi:10.1177/0190272510361602

crossref issued 2010/02/16 · crossref published 2010/02/16 · crossref published-online 2010/02/16 · openalex publication_date 2010/02/16 · crossref created 2010/02/16 · crossref published-print 2010/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/05/01 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

The origin of values and preferences is an unresolved theoretical question in behavioral and social sciences. The Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis, derived from the Savanna Principle and a theory of the evolution of general intelligence, suggests that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences (such as liberalism and atheism and, for men, sexual exclusivity) than less intelligent individuals, but that general intelligence may have no effect on the acquisition and espousal of evolutionarily familiar values (for children, marriage, family, and friends). The analyses of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Study 1) and the General Social Surveys (Study 2) show that adolescent and adult intelligence significantly increases adult liberalism, atheism, and men’s (but not women’s) value on sexual exclusivity.

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