“Disliked but Free to Speak: Cognitive Ability Is Related to Supporting Freedom of Speech for Groups Across the Ideological Spectrum”, Jonas De keersmaecker, Dries H. Bostyn, Alain Van Hiel, Arne Roets2020-03-12 (IQ, politics)⁠:

Freedom of speech for all citizens is often considered as a cornerstone of democratic societies.

In 3 studies [GSS & Mechanical Turk], we examined the relationship between cognitive ability and support for freedom of speech for a variety of social groups across the ideological spectrum (n₁ varies between 1,373 and 18,719; n₂ = 298; and n₃ = 395).

Corroborating our theoretical expectations, although cognitive ability was related to more affective prejudice toward relatively conservative groups and less affective prejudice toward relatively liberal groups (Study 2), people with higher levels of cognitive ability were more in favor of freedom of speech for all target groups (Studies 1–3). The relationship between cognitive ability and freedom of speech support was mediated by intellectual humility (preregistered Study 3).

These results indicate that cognitive ability contributes to support for the democratic right of freedom of speech for all social-ideological groups.

[Keywords: freedom of speech, cognitive ability, intellectual humility, prejudice, intergroup attitudes]

See Also:

• Answering Unresolved Questions About the Relationship Between Cognitive Ability and Prejudice

• Motivated moral judgments about freedom of speech are constrained by a need to maintain consistency

• Predicting the Importance of Freedom of Speech and the Perceived Harm of Hate Speech

• Generalized Trust and Intelligence in the United States

• Atheists and Agnostics Are More Reflective than Religious Believers: Four Empirical Studies and a Meta-Analysis

• The cognitive and perceptual correlates of ideological attitudes: a data-driven approach

• The Relation Between Intelligence and Religiosity: A Meta-Analysis and Some Proposed Explanations

• New evidence on the link between genes, psychological traits, and political engagement

• Education, Intelligence, and Attitude Extremity