When it comes to thinking, progressives do it better than conservatives do. Progressives embrace novelty, nuance and complexity, while social conservatives struggle to process complex tasks. A decade of brain scans suggests why.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. W B Yeats.

So, who do you want running the countryanddetermining your future?Dumb? OrDumber?Now is the time to choose. Theresscientific consensuson a long understood but ever so delicate matter. On average,when it comes tothinking,progressivesdo it better than conservativesdo.Adecade orsoofbrain scansconfirmsit.

Why werent we told?More to the point,why, when we found out, did we keep mum?A decade ago,inThe Guardian,George Monbiot was lividabout the lefts silence.Political niceness, he said, had progressivismby the throat:The conceptual stupidities of conservatismare matched by the strategic stupidities of liberalism.

What are the lefts strategic stupidities?Basically, many progressives embrace harmonyat the expense of solidarity. In focusing onbeing nice, theyfail to say whats wrong and why and how to fix it.Nicenessabhors the very thingsdemocracyis about dissent, debate and disagreement.

Theresearchconsensus is thatpolitical conservativeshaverelativelylow-levelcognitive skills.Of course,there are exceptions; its about averages. On average, conservativesstruggle to process and plan complex tasks.In contrast, progressives are more comfortable with novelty, nuance andcomplexity.And, becauseprogressiveargumentsare relativelycomplex,conservatives have difficultyprocessingthem.The right literally doesnt get what theknow-it-allsareon about.For conservatives, complex progressive ideas evoke feelings of being under threat.

What are the mainresearchfindings?Compared to progressives,thethinking skills,emotional regulation andmoralcompetenceof conservatives are not the best.Conservativeshave a higherdesireforsecurity, predictability, authority,order, closure,andcertainty. Theyare overly cautious and scientificallylessliterate.

Conservativeshaverelativedifficulty processing evidence even at a perceptual level.Theytend to think about the world in black and white terms and are more drawn to authoritarianideologies because they simplify the world.

Dont get me wrong. Im not suggesting that conservative minds are prejudiced minds. What theresearchsays is that conservative minds are drawn to simplistic ideologies.The prejudiceisin these black-and-white ideologies. Conservatives are simply more prone to adoptthe add-ons.

Whats going onin the brains of conservativesand progressivesthat affects their political orientation?On average,says the neuroscience,progressivebrains havealarger volume of greymatterin an area that helps detect errors and resolve conflicts (anterior cingulate cortex).In contrast,thefear centre of the brain(amygdala)isenlargedin conservatives.Thiswouldexplain why conservativeshave aheightenedsensitivity to fear, threat and disgust.And why theirhacklesgo up so readily.What matters to them is whipping up real fear and rage among their viewers. Of course, says Monbiot, not all conservatives are stupid, but they long ago gave up high-minded conservatism in favour of appealing to the basest, stupidest impulses.

To recap,scienceis tellingus thatthe cognitive abilities ofconservativesarerelatively modest.So,whyhavethesupposedsmarty pantskeptmumabout it?Mute, while 75 million Americans vote for a clinical sociopath.Buttoned upwhileAustralia votesfor adaddiowhosunmovedbytheclimatecrisisbecause Jesus isalreadyon theMidnightSpecial.

Yes, you guessed it, not just social conservatism, but religiosity, is tied to poor thinking skills.Dont get me wrong. I know it sounds likeI am, but Im not against conservatives. The ones who avoid extremist positions are generally well-meaning, honest and generous. All Im against isvoting them intopowerfulpositionswhere they areout of their depth.In place of thought, theyjustmarket stuff.You mightalmostthinktheyrethinking, but itsalljustpracticedspin.

No doubt, Monbiot is still livid about theleftssilence: As the social vivisectionists of the right slice up a living society to see if its component parts can survive in isolation, he said, progressives will not shout stop. Doing so requires an act of interruption… for which they no longer possess a vocabulary.

So, whyhaventthelatte-sippingclever clogsshoutedthe decades-old newsfrom their inner-city rooftops?Too nice? Scaredof losing likes?Afeared offallingoff their high horse?

Well, heres where nicenessistakingus: Over the period 1974-2006, self-identified conservatism among Americans increasedbya third.And, across the global north, intelligence scores, afterrisingsteadilyfor most ofthe 20thCentury, havebeenfallingsince1975.

Would theclever dickspleasestop being dummies?Failing that, we can onlyhopetheMidnight Specialpulls in soon.