Religiosity and intelligence

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The topic of religiosity and intelligence pertains to possible relationships between intelligence and religious belief.

Topics dealing with the measurement of intelligence are often controversial. Critics in these areas examine the validity and fairness of cognitive testing, as well as the problems in the definition and operationalization of the other measurements under discussion, in this case religiosity. Many of the issues pertaining to the investigation of group differences in intelligence vis-à-vis religiosity are also raised in the investigation of race and intelligence—a better established, though even more controversial, area of intelligence research.

In scientific research, correlations can suggest, but not necessarily imply causation: even if a positive or negative correlation can be found between intelligence and religiosity, it may suggest, but doesn't involve as a necessary circumstance, that one is causing the other. (See also: spurious relationship; and correlation does not imply causation).

Contents 1 Older studies 2 Current research 2.1 United States 2.1.1 Beliefs among scientists 2.1.2 Public 2.2 Reported "importance of religion" and statistics among nations 3 Criticism 4 Other trends 5 See also 6 Notes and references 6.1 References

[edit] Older studies

In 1986, an essay in the magazine Free Inquiry, which is published by Paul Kurtz's Council for Secular Humanism, summarized studies on religiosity and intelligence.^[1] In it Burnham Beckwith, the author of self-published and subsidy-published books on socialism and futurism,[2] summarized studies on religiosity and its relation with attributes that he considered positively linked with intelligence: IQ, SAT scores, "success", and academic certification. Although conceding that it was easy to find fault with the studies he reviewed, "for all were imperfect," he contended that the studies he examined, taken together, provided strong evidence for an inverse correlation between intelligence and religious faith in America. Beckwith's essay in a political magazine dedicated to the promotion of atheism^[2] should not be confused with a scientific study of the topic, however.

His essay said:

In this essay I have reviewed:

1. sixteen studies of the correlation between individual measures of student intelligence and religiosity, all but three of which reported an inverse correlation.
2. five studies reporting that student bodies with high average IQ and/or SAT scores are far less religious than lower-scoring student bodies;
3. three studies reporting that geniuses (IQ 3+ standard deviations above average) are much less religious than the general public;
4. seven studies reporting that highly successful persons are much less religious in belief than are others; and
5. eight old and four new Gallup polls revealing that college alumni (average IQ about one standard deviation above average) are much less religious in belief than are grade-school pollees

. . . All but four of the forty-three polls I have reviewed support the conclusion that native intelligence varies inversely with degree of religious faith; i.e., that, other factors being equal, the more intelligent a person is, the less religious he is.

One study of a group with IQs over 140 found that of men, 10 percent held strong religious belief, of women 18 percent (Terman, 1959). Sixty-two percent of men and 57 percent of women claimed "little religious inclination" while 28 percent of the men and 23 percent of the women claimed it was "not at all important."

The studies Beckwith reviewed included Caplovitz and Sherrow's 1977 study, which concluded that students attending higher-ranked schools have fewer religious beliefs than those attending lower-ranked schools. (It should be noted, however, that the ranking of schools is a highly debated issue^{[citation needed]}, and most highly-ranked schools in this survey came from states that were generally less religious.)

Five of these reviewed studies concerned how liberal or conservative a person's religious views were, as opposed to whether a person simply was or was not religious. For example, among scientists listed in American men of Science (1927), Lehman and Witty (1931) found that Unitarians were most overrepresented with 81.4 times the proportion of Unitarians in the U.S. population. Universalists were second with 6.6 times the corresponding proportion.

[edit] Current research

[edit] United States

In an undergraduate student project at UC Davis, Regan Clark points out that there is little research directly linking IQ with higher or lower levels of religiosity and spirituality. Clark's article in Explorations: An undergraduate research journal (2004) found, while noting that the unrepresentative sample limited generalizations, no significant correlation between religiosity levels and IQ scores. However, a negative correlation with self-reported Quantitative SAT (QSAT) scores and prayer fulfillment (as measured by the STS sub-scale) was found. The author suggests that the SAT scores reflect learned rather than inherent reasoning ability and that "the negative associations among QSAT, religiosity, and prayer fulfillment may be due to learned skills in reasoning, perhaps influenced in the home by the father’s education level."^[3]

[edit] Beliefs among scientists

According to an article in Scientific American, a popular-science magazine, 90% of the general population surveyed professed a distinct belief in a personal god and afterlife, while only 40% of the scientists with a BS surveyed did so, and only 10% of those considered "eminent."^[4] An ongoing Templeton Foundation study that began in 2005 on Religion among Academic Scientists, whose principal researcher is Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociologist and postdoctoral fellow at Rice University, has examined scientists' religious beliefs (counting social scientists as scientists). The study so far has concluded that 38% of the natural scientists, 24% of the doctors, and 31% of the social scientists surveyed said they do not believe in God. The study sample is comprised of 1,646 faculty at elite research universities.^[5]

A 1998 survey^[6] by Larson and Witham of the 517 members of the United States National Academy of Sciences showed that 72.2% of the members expressed "personal disbelief" in a personal God while 20.8% expressed "doubt or agnosticism" and only 7.0% expressed "personal belief". This was a follow-up to their own earlier 1996 study^[7] which itself was a follow-up to a 1916 study by James Leuba^[8]. These studies have been criticized by a number of different groups, not necessarily religious^{[citation needed]}. This is because the study was by mail and received a return rate of 50%.

[edit] Public

A June 2006 Gallup survey stated, "Seventy-two percent of Americans are certain there is a God and have no doubts, while another 14% think that God probably exists and have only a few doubts. 14% do not have a god belief; 3% of these people are certain that god does not exist. There are no significant differences in belief in God by age. Men, those living in the East and West, those who are college graduates, and those with high incomes are less likely to believe in God than others."^[9]

[edit] Reported "importance of religion" and statistics among nations

The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed opinions by nation with the question "How important is religion in your life—very important, somewhat important, not too important, or not at all important?"[3] The report finds that Americans are much more religious than people living in other wealthy nations. In the U.S., 59% of people reported religion was "very important," as compared to 30% in Canada. In this way, the views of Americans are more similar to people in developing countries than to those in developed countries. The study found a correlation between the percentage of people reporting that religion was "very important" and the national per-capita GDP. It can be further stated that the nations who scored as most religious tended to have low science scores (among eighth-graders) according to TIMSS.[4] Also an inverse correlation at Nationmaster can be found between mathematical literacy and church attendance.[5] (Although labor regulation and police per capita were far stronger inverse correlations.) No significant inverse correlation showed up for scientific literacy[6] or reading literacy, however.[7]

[edit] Criticism

The attempt to use psychometric measures of intelligence such as the IQ test may be criticized. Some scientists object to the idea that intelligence is a single, measurable characteristic^[10][11][12]; others object to the use of specific tests. As such, any studies about intelligence tend to be controversial.

Studies focusing on correlations between religiosity and other socioeconomic factors, such as higher education or interest in science, are not reliable to predict a relationship between religion and intelligence, even if it is assumed that these factors are typically associated with intelligence. Correlation is not transitive: that is, even if A is correlated with B, and B is correlated with C, you cannot draw the conclusion that A is correlated with C. It requires a separate set of data to establish that correlation.^[13]

Some of the studies primarily deal with unmarried high-school and university students, and other studies show people become more religious after they marry and have children [8]. A recent Gallup International survey indicates this is international [9]. It showed that levels of atheism decline after age 30 while self-description as "a religious person" rises.

Studies of religiousness and intelligence have been predominantly performed in the U.S., which is not necessarily representative of other populations. The USA has, for example, a higher level of religiosity than other developed nations.[10][11][12]. (See also: Demographics of atheism).

[edit] Other trends

Although some studies show an inverse relationship between education and religiosity, there are several counterexamples of religious groups among which a positive correlation between educational level and religiosity has been shown.

The LDS-affiliated Brigham Young University also conducted survey research into education levels and religiosity displayed among the Mormons. 41% of Mormons with only elementary school education attend Church regularly. By contrast, 76% of Mormon college graduates attend Church regularly and 78% of Mormons who went beyond their college degrees to do graduate study attend Church regularly. As Mormons attain more education, it seems, they become more devout.^[14] These findings, again, contrast with national norms; national survey data published by the Princeton Religious Research Center indicate that the higher the level of educational attainment, the lower the level of religious zeal. ^[15]

A 2004 study by the General Social Survey showed that in general 30.4% of those with a graduate degree attend religious services weekly or more. This was higher than any lesser educated group.[13]. Further the group with the highest percentage of "never attending," but also "more than once a week" attendance, was composed by those with less than a high school education. However, those with graduate degrees were the least likely to believe the Bible as the literal word of God. Moreover, graduate degree-holders had the highest percentage of a religious preference of "Jewish" in comparison with the lesser educated groups.

[edit] See also

• Psychology of religion
• Religion
• William James

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ Burnham P. Beckwith. (Spring, 1986). The Effect of Intelligence on Religious Faith. Free inquiry.
2. ^ http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=fi&page=purpose
3. ^ Clark, Regan (2004). Religiousness, Spirituality, and IQ: Are They Linked? (PDF). University of California. Retrieved on December 20, 2006.
4. ^ Larson, Edward J.; Witham, L. (1999-09-01). Scientists and Religion in America (HTML). Scientific American. Retrieved on February 16, 2007.
5. ^ Britt, Robert (2005-08-11). Scientists' Belief in God Varies Starkly by Discipline (HTML). LiveScience.com. Retrieved on December 20, 2006.
6. ^ (1998). Nature. 394 (6691), 313. "Leading scientists still reject God" [1]
7. ^ (1997). Nature. 386, 435--436. "Scientists are still keeping the faith"
8. ^ Leuba, J. H., The Belief in God and Immortality: A Psychological, Anthropological and Statistical Study. Sherman, French & Co., Boston. 1916
9. ^ Newport, Frank (2006-06-23). Who Believes in God and Who Doesn't? (HTML). The Gallup Poll. Retrieved on December 20, 2006.
10. ^ The myth of intelligence. The Psychological Record, Vol. 53, 2003
11. ^ Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man. W.W. Norton & Co., 1981.
12. ^ Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences, ISBN 0-465-04768-8
13. ^ A Guide to Working With Economic Data, 2005, p. 67.
14. ^ Stan L. Albrecht, "The Consequential Dimension of Mormon Religiosity" Latter-Day Saint Social Life, Social Research on the LDS Church and its Members, (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1998), 286.
15. ^ Princeton Religious Research Center. Religion in America. Princeton, N.J., 1982

[edit] References

• Shermer, M. (2000). How we believe. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman. Google Book Search