C Rapt Er Viii Ethnocentrism in Relation to Intelligence and Education

There are several reasons why one might expect intelligence and education to be related to ethnocentrism. One reason is primarily methodological: since all of the E-scale items (and most of the items in the E-F-PEC series) are negative, i.e., agreement represents a pro-ethnocentric stand, perhaps some of the less intelligent individuals make high scores not out of real conviction but simply out of suggestibility and lack of discernment. In answer to this point, it may be noted that we were primarily interested in measuring both active receptivity as well as a more passive suggestibility to antidemocratic ideology. Nevertheless, we should expect suggestibility to be but one—and far from the most important one—of the many factors showing some association with high scores on the F scale. Various hypotheses and interpretations presented in other chapters have implied, directly or indirectly, that intelligence and ethnocentrism are negatively correlated, i.e., that the high scorers on E are somewhat less intelligent on the average than the low scorers. Thus, the analysis of the ideological as well as of the clinical material has suggested that ethnocentrism is related to stereotypy, rigidity, and concreteness in thinking (also see Rokeach (98)), to narrowness of the ego bounds, and to difficulty in grasping psychosocial explanations of social phenomena. Since these variables are at best only partial components of intelligence, and since they are only imperfectly (though significantly) related to ethnocentrism, we might expect a relatively low but consistent negative correlation between intelligence and ethnocentrism. The correlation may be brought closer to zero by the operation of another factor: it has often been observed that an individual may function in a highly complex, abstract, and flexible manner in one area of life (e.g. in his occupation as a physical scientist, mechanic, or businessman), and in a completely contrasting—less intelligent—manner in his social outlook or in his family life. It is as if the basic intellectual capacity can express itself only in accord-