[extropy-chat] The NeoCon Mind-Trick (was letter concerning presidential growth)

[The Avantguardian]

--- Joseph Bloch <transhumanist at goldenfuture.net>
wrote:

> The IQ tests delivered over the tickle.com website
> aren't valid 
> instruments, and the people who take them are a
> self-selected audience 
> and are thus not necessarily representative of the
> population at large 
> or the voting population.

Yes, they are self-selected but so are voters. I
already mentioned there is a selection bias in the
I.Q. scores but it should affect both Bush voters and
Kerry voters equally. The Tickle site claims that it
is the result of 30 million data points and I don't
think there have ever been that many WAIS-R tests
administered since the test started. So at least I
have a large sample size to work with. 



> 
> This is a completely nonsensical analysis. What it
> needs to have, is a 
> scientifically rigorous IQ test (think WAIS-R)
> crosstabbed by registered 
> voter. People who voted in previous elections would
> be ideal.

You are missing my point. The individual voter's IQs
should not matter, only their aggregate IQs.    

> 
> But someone who took a 5-minute web-based IQ test
> crossed with statewide 
> voting data? C'mon...

It is not just someone, but some 30 million sorted by
state. They should by all rights be completely
independent of the election results but I am seeing a
correlation. I don't know what more to say except that
the data is sitting out there for ANYONE to analyze.
It's not my fault there is a correlation where there
should not be one.


 

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. . ."

- Albert Einstein, "What I Believe" (1930)

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