[extropy-chat] IQ as a function of political philosophy (was The NeoCon Mind-Trick)

[gts]

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 01:29:27 -0500, Jeff Davis <jrd1415 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> With all the religious fundamentalists rejecting
> science in favor of "revealed truth", neglecting their
> thinking skills in favor of their uncritical believing
> "skills", I figure they've got to be skewing
> themselves down some.
>
> It's an hypothesis.  Data anyone?

As I reported in another message, the Fordham Institute recently published  
report cards evaluating each state's science standards for K-12, grading  
them A to F.

http://www.edexcellence.net/institute/publication/publication.cfm?id=352

I compared the gradings to the political map of red-blue states and each  
state's electoral college votes.

States with 'A' grades - red/blue - ev

CA Strong Blue 55
MA Strong Blue 12
NY Strong Blue 31
ev = 98

NM Barely Red 5
VA Weak Red 13
SC Strong Red 8
IN Strong Red 11
ev = 37

States with 'F' grades - red/blue - ev

OR Barely Blue 7
WI Barely Blue 10
NH Barely Blue 4
HI  Weak Blue 4
ev = 25


ID  Strong Red 4
WY Strong Red 3
MT Strong Red 3
NE Strong Red 5
KS Strong Red 6
OK Strong Red 7
TX  Strong Red 34
MS Strong Red 8
AL  Strong Red 9
FL  Weak Red 27
AK  Strong Red 3
ev =109

If your state's science standards received an 'F' grade then there is an  
81% probability that your electoral vote was for Bush.

If your state's science standards received an 'A' grade then there is a  
76% probability that your electoral college vote was for Kerry.

This does not prove religious fundmentalism as the cause of poor science  
standards. However it is noteworthy that most of the failing states are  
red and located in the bible belt, and that Fordham (rightly, imo)  
penalizes states that don't teach evolution.

Unfortunately it is difficult to determine exactly scientifically ignorant  
one is likely to be after graduating high school in a failing state. There  
are no science achievement tests for high school graduates. The closest  
test is probably the ACT, aministered near the end of high school, but  
participation is sparce and varies widely from state to state.

-gts