Registered report: Cognitive ability, but not cognitive reflection, predicts expressing greater political animosity and favouritism

TL;DR

Higher cognitive ability is linked to stronger political favoritism and animosity, especially among liberals, while cognitive reflection is not.

Contribution

Shows cognitive ability, not cognitive reflection, predicts political group attitudes in a large US sample.

Findings

Higher cognitive ability correlates with more political animosity and favoritism.

This pattern is stronger among liberals than conservatives.

Cognitive reflection does not predict political attitudes.

Abstract

Liberals and conservatives both express political animosity and favouritism. However, less is known about whether the same or different factors contribute to this phenomenon among liberals and conservatives. We test three different relationships that could emerge among cognitive ability, cognitive reflection and political group‐based attitudes. Analysing two nationally representative surveys of US Americans (N = 9035) containing a measure of cognitive ability, we find evidence that compared to people lower in cognitive ability, people higher in cognitive ability express more animosity towards ideologically discordant groups and more favouritism towards ideologically concordant groups. This pattern was particularly pronounced among liberals. In a registered report study, we then test whether the same is true of cognitive reflection in another large dataset (N = 3498). In contrast to cognitive ability, we find no relationship between cognitive reflection, political animosity and favouritism. Together, these studies provide a comprehensive test of how cognitive ability and cognitive reflection are related to political animosity and favouritism for liberals and conservatives in the United States.

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