IQ and political attitudes across British regions and local authorities

Abstract

This paper analyses data on average IQ and four measures of political attitudes at both the regional level (n = 11) and the local authority level in Britain (n = 372). At the regional level, average IQ is positively associated with right-wing economic attitudes and trust in experts, but is not significantly associated with liberal social attitudes or intention to vote Remain in the EU referendum. At the local authority level, average IQ is positively associated with all four measures of political attitudes, although the associations with right-wing economic attitudes and trust in experts are stronger than the associations with liberal social attitudes and intention to vote Remain in the EU referendum. In multivariate models, average SES is a better and more robust predictor of political attitudes than average IQ.