Atheists are
more intelligent than religious people, say researchers
New paper
sets out to explain negative correlation between faith and intellect found in
dozens of past studies
Religious people are less intelligent on average than
atheists because faith is an instinct and clever people are better at rising
above their instincts, researchers have claimed.
The theory — called the 'Intelligence-Mismatch
Association Model' — was proposed by a pair of authors who set out to explain
why numerous studies over past decades have found religious people to have
lower average intelligence than people who do not believe in a god.
A 2013 analysis by University of Rochester found “a
reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity” in 53 out of
63 historic studies.
A negative correlation between intelligence and
religion makes sense if religion is considered an instinct, and intelligence
the ability to rise above one's instincts, say researchers Edward Dutton and
Dimitri van der Linden in their new paper published today.
Writing for Springer’s journal of Evolutionary
Psychological Science, the authors – who are based at the Ulster Institute for
Social Research and Rotterdam University respectively – explained their model
is based on the ideas of evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa.
Mr Kanazawa's 'Savanna-IQ Principles' suggest human
behaviour will always be guided by the environment in which their ancestors
developed.
Mr Dutton and Mr van der Linden argue in keeping with
this that religion should be considered an 'evolved domain' — or instinct.
Rising above instincts is advantageous, they said in a
statement, because it helps people to solve problems.
“If religion is an evolved domain then it is an
instinct, and intelligence — in rationally solving problems — can be understood
as involving overcoming instinct and being intellectually curious and thus open
to non-instinctive possibilities,” explained Mr Dutton.
According to the 2013 review, the more intelligent a
child is — even during early years — the
more likely it is to turn away from religion.
In old age, above-average-intelligence people are less
likely to believe in a god.
Mr Dutton and Mr van der Linden also investigated the
link between instinct and stress, and the instinctiveness with which people
tend to operate during stressful periods.
They argue that being intelligent helps people during
stressful times to weigh up their options and act rationally rather than give
in to knee-jerk responses.
“If religion is indeed an evolved domain — an instinct
— then it will become heightened at times of stress, when people are inclined
to act instinctively, and there is clear evidence for this,” said Mr Dutton.
“It also means that intelligence allows us to able to
pause and reason through the situation and the possible consequences of our
actions.”
The researchers believe that people who are attracted
to the non-instinctive are potentially better problem solvers.
“This is important, because in a changing ecology, the
ability to solve problems will become associated with rising above our
instincts, rendering us attracted to evolutionary mismatches,” said Mr van der
Linden.
