The importance of relatively conservative cultural narratives such as religion may depend upon cognitive ability—at least that’a my take home from this work with @azimshariff, @ImHardcory, and @RoyFBaumeister

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/11/28/opinion/thou-shall-not-kill-an-analysis-religion-violence-iq/?outputType=amp&event=event25&__twitter_impression=true

This is one danger of cognitive sorting. Those higher in cognitive ability ridicule and lampoon narratives that might mean little to them, but that might be important to others...as @BenWinegard and I discussed here https://quillette.com/2019/04/21/the-twilight-of-liberalism/

Of course, these are empirical claims, and they require more study. But this is one reason my priors are against the feasibility or desirability of libertarianism. It likely works for those in the top 5% of cognitive ability and self-control and is bad for everyone else.

Again, we examined just one narrative (religion) and one dependent variable, but I think there is a general pattern. We’ve found some supportive data and hope researchers continue to pursue this idea to support or qualify or reject it.