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Why the Most Deluded Are Often the Most Intelligent
Ever wondered why clever friends make strange choices?
Intelligence is deemed the most valuable character quality in the battle for truth. It’s the can-opener that unlocks the universe. At closer observation, the characteristic turns out to be not only the most deceptive, but the most pernicious one. How is that possible?
Traditionally, ignorance or lack of cognitive function was seen as the cause of delusion. But what if delusion is actually the norm, and what we regard as opinion is the delusion?
Emerging research shows that studies using the Yale law professor Dan Kahan’s Cultural Cognition Test and others have found that greater cognitive ability is correlated with ideological intransigence (an inability to change one’s viewpoint) rather than with better ability to evaluate questions objectively.
It creates a conceptual dilemma; if there is no objective basis for truth, it completely undermines traditional education and the education of reason.
The correlation between intelligence and ideological bias highlights the fact that we need to rethink some key concepts about intelligence itself.
The traditional definition assumes that intelligence is the ability to reason, but this definition does…
