The intelligence construct is one of the great triumphs of scientific psychology and, at the same time, a subject that generates great debate and controversy.

When the religion is included in this type of discussion, the mixture becomes explosive. Especially if you start from a meta-analysis published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review, whose conclusions suggest that smarter people tend to be less of a believer than others, too. At least, that’s what the statistics show.

Related article: "The people "of left" are more intelligent"

How was the study conducted?

This research is an analysis of many studies already made on intelligence and belief in religions . That is to say, it is a kind of summary in which a conclusion is offered that encompasses the results of many investigations that deal with a similar subject.

Specifically, to obtain the results, 63 studies were selected that address a common theme from somewhat different methodologies: the relationship between IQ (or, in some cases, test performance) and the degree to which people believe in a religion, in various parts of the planet. With these data, the scientists synthesized all the information obtained about the different variables and compared the results on one scale and another.

The results

Of the 63 studies, 33 showed a statistically significant negative correlation between intelligence and religiousness . In other words, these studies had detected a generalised tendency for the most intelligent people to be less religious. In another 10 cases, the correlation was positive, as they revealed an inverse trend to that of the rest.

Why does this happen?

The researchers propose three explanations, although none of them have been tested (since that was not the aim of the study).

The first explanation highlights the fact that the most intelligent people are also the most curious and most likely to question certain rules and thought patterns imposed from outside. In this sense, it is easy for someone with a high level of IQ to reject certain ideas coming from the religious tradition and to prefer "to go it alone" as far as explanations about reality are concerned, especially if in the society where he lives religious orthodoxy is very strong.

The second explanation relates high intelligence to the tendency to think logically and base beliefs on empirical evidence. That is, the most intelligent people would tend to resist ideas that cannot be rejected or validated through traditional logic and analytical thinking.

The third explanation, and perhaps the most interesting, arises from the idea that, although religion has been useful for humanity throughout the great stages of our history, there are more and more people whose mental capacities make belief in a beyond unnecessary . In other words, intelligence is replacing religion in the functions that the latter previously fulfilled: providing an explanation about the world, giving an ordered and predictable vision of reality, and even generating well-being through self-esteem and a feeling of fitting into society.

Does that mean that if I’m a believer I’m less intelligent?

No, not at all. This research is still a meta-analysis aimed at detecting statistical trends , which means that it only describes patterns that are visible in a very large number of people.

Besides, there’s something that always has to be taken into account: correlation does not imply causality . That means that less believers may be statistically smarter simply because, for social and economic reasons, they tend to live in richer societies than the rest, which means that they have enjoyed better quality education and health care than the rest. Intelligence, let us remember, does not exist in isolation from the physical world, and if it cannot develop well because of a context full of deficiencies, this will be reflected in the IQ tests.

However, it must be taken into account that in this meta-study the influence of three relevant variables was isolated when it came to seeing the relationship between religiosity and intelligence. These variables were sex, education level and race.

Bibliographic references:

  • Zuckerman, M., Silberman, J and Hall, J. A. (2013). The Relation Between Intelligence and Religiosity. A Meta-Analysis and Some Proposed Explanations. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 17(4), pp. 325 – 354.