Why smart people sometimes have otherwise unexplainable political leanings?

Have you wondered why seemingly high-IQ and knowledgeable people have otherwise unexplainable political leanings? In this short post I sketch a possible answer based on Michael Hannon's paper "Are knowledgeable voters better voters?"

Intuitively, being more knowledgeable should make you a better voter (or supporter of certain politics in environments where voting is a misnomer). The problem is, as empirical research seems to suggests, more knowledgeable individuals are more politically partisan and, in turn, are more prone to error and bias.

This appears to be particularly so when it comes to beliefs that constitute our identity. What happens then is that we seemingly tend to mobilize our intellectual capabilities to destroy the information that threatens our values.

More generally, people with stronger analytic abilities are more likely to twist data at will than people with low reasoning ability. Biased people use intelligence and education as tools for rationalising beliefs.

Effectively, the more you know about a topic, the more tools you have at your disposal to find reasons to reject facts and arguments that conflict with your preferred views. Indeed, research appears to show that less knowledgeable voters are behaving more rationally than more knowledgeable ones.

Therefore, it is not obvious that knowledgeable citizens will make better political decisions, leaving us with an uncomfortable tradeoff. There are some limits and exceptions to this - Michael Hannon provides details and some solutions (none appear good to me, though).

I draw three conclusions from this:

1. It helps to clarify some otherwise unexplainable political leanings of seemingly high-IQ and knowledgeable people;

2. It is a rebuke to proposals, which are still in circulation, regarding certain voting requirements, such as IQ, education level, etc.;

3. It seems to lend support to practices of compulsory voting, like in Belgium, which has the oldest system thereof.

Caption: Michael Hannon speaking at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, UK, November 2024