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Clever kids become liberal and antitraditional adults
Should be good for getting a couple of people in a lather! Please excuse the sensationalist thread title (although the following article was called 'bright kids become enlightened adults,' so I think I've toned it down).
"We examined the prospective association between general intelligence (g) at age 10 and liberal and antitraditional social attitudes at age 30 in a large (N = 7,070), representative sample of the British population born in 1970. Statistical analyses identified a general latent trait underlying attitudes that are antiracist, pro-working women, socially liberal, and trusting in the democratic political system. There was a strong association between higher g at age 10 and more liberal and antitraditional attitudes at age 30; this association was mediated partly via educational qualifications, but not at all via occupational social class. Very similar results were obtained for men and women. People in less professional occupations—and whose parents had been in less professional occupations—were less trusting of the democratic political system."
Things to consider: it's not an IQ test for intelligence here. It's basic things like reading skill, verbal ability and memory recall. Bit naughty to call this 'intelligence;' it's more mental ability I think. Also, association is not causality; but they have considered mechanisms of change, and other things that predict the relationship, so you could say they're on the way to showing causality. The relationship seems to (kinda) be that mental ability at 10 predicts educational outcomes, which predicts attitudes at 30. The social class cataegory of your job makes no difference.