First, there’s an article about intelligence and religiosity. I don’t have access to the papers in question right now, but the upshot is apparently that the correlation between intelligence (as measured by IQ and other tests) and irreligiosity can be explained with minimal emphasis on intelligence but rather on ability to process information and estimate your own knowledge base as well. They found for example that people who were overconfident about their knowledge level were much more likely to be religious. There may still be correlation v. causation issues, but tentatively it looks like having fewer cognitive biases and having better default rationality actually makes one less religious.
The second matter of interest to LW: Today’s featured article on the English Wikipedia is the article on confirmation bias.
Two things of interest to Less Wrong:
First, there’s an article about intelligence and religiosity. I don’t have access to the papers in question right now, but the upshot is apparently that the correlation between intelligence (as measured by IQ and other tests) and irreligiosity can be explained with minimal emphasis on intelligence but rather on ability to process information and estimate your own knowledge base as well. They found for example that people who were overconfident about their knowledge level were much more likely to be religious. There may still be correlation v. causation issues, but tentatively it looks like having fewer cognitive biases and having better default rationality actually makes one less religious.
The second matter of interest to LW: Today’s featured article on the English Wikipedia is the article on confirmation bias.