Today’s talking point has been a meta-analysis on the relationship of religion and intelligence. Studies on intelligence often get a lot of attention, and this one has been no exception. While its findings are undoubtedly interesting, they may tell us less about the general correlation of intelligence and faith than it might be tempting to think.
The meta-analysis looked into 63 previous studies on intelligence and religiosity from 1921 to 2012. The researchers looked at each study’s sample size, quality of data collection, and analysis methods, and took into account any biases that might affect their findings. Psychologists Miron Zuckerman and Jordan Silberman of the University of Rochester and Judith Hall of Northeastern University found that 53 of the studies showed a negative correlation between intelligence and faith, while 10 showed a positive one. The negative correlation was significant in 35 studies – only 2 studies exhibited a significant positive correlation. The conclusion of the meta-analysis then was that there is a clear negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity.
The meta-analysis looked into such major studies as the “Terman cohort of the gifted”, which in 1921 started to follow the development of over 1,500 children whose IQ exceeded 135 at the age of 10. In studies based on the Terman cohort data, these “gifted” people have been discovered to be considerably less religious than the average, even though 60% of them reported having received “strict religious instruction” as children. This suggests that people with high IQ are more likely to turn away from religion when growing up. Even in old age, the group remains less religious than the average population. Another major study also proposed that high IQ at a young age makes religious beliefs less likely in later life.
Why would intelligence lead to non-belief? The researchers point out that most of the studies “share one central theme – the premise that religious beliefs are irrational, not anchored in science, not testable, and therefore unappealing to intelligent people who ‘know better’.” The lack of logical reasoning behind faith is indeed one of the three possible reasons the researchers propose for why people with high IQs tend to be less religious. They also position that non-belief amongst the intelligent may arise from unwillingness to conform: a previous meta-analysis found that highly intelligent people may be more likely to become atheists when they live in religious societies, because of their non-conformist tendencies. Finally, it seems that intelligence can replace some of the functions that religion provides believers, such as self-regulation, self-enhancement and even attachment (highly intellectual people are more likely to be and stay married than those who score low in IQ tests).
While the study suggests a negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity, its scope is limited. The meta-analysis only takes into account analytic intelligence, or the “ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience,” and therefore leaves out other suggested ways to define one’s mental abilities, such as creative and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, more than 87% of the people involved in the studies were from the US, the UK and Canada, and mostly Protestants, so the findings do not necessarily represent the situation in other parts of the world.
So, before us non-believers start feeling too superior, let’s remember that the main finding of the analysis is that people with high IQs, who come from an English speaking Protestant background, tend to be less religious. What it does not say is that all believers are inherently dumb, or, unfortunately, that being an atheist instantly raises your IQ to rival Einstein’s.
