A new theory about the relation between cognitive ability and moral opinions

A large body of empirical research has established that people with higher cognitive ability tend to have more liberal opinions on "moral" (non-economic) issues. But why?

We propose a new theory to resolve this, building on our recent work on an argument-driven process whereby public opinion gradually changes toward more liberal opinions in the whole population.

High cognitive ability makes it easier to understand moral arguments, which will make the opinion change process go faster in the high cognitive ability segment of the population - whereby the link between cognitive ability and liberal opinions will emerge.The project involves theoretical development and a sequence of four empirical studies to test the mechanisms proposed by our theory as well as its population-level predictions.

To test whether our theory holds across societies the empirical studies will be conducted in three different countries in which prior research has established a link between cognitive ability and liberal moral opinions.Our research team is uniquely well suited to conduct these studies.

We have world-leading expertise in cultural evolutionary theory and extensive experience in experimental psychology and in cross-cultural research.

Most importantly, our preliminary work shows the feasibility of the project and indicates the potential explanatory power of the theory.