Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Research Unit of Psychology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
Brain Behav. 2022 Sep;12(9):e2704. doi: 10.1002/brb3.2704. Epub 2022 Sep 1.
Low education, low cognitive abilities, and certain cognitive styles are suggested to predispose to social intolerance and prejudices. Evidence is, however, restricted by comparatively small samples, neglect of confounding variables and genetic factors, and a narrow focus on a single sort of prejudice. We investigated the relationships of education, polygenic cognitive potential, cognitive performance, and cognitive styles with social intolerance in adulthood over a 15-year follow-up.
We used data from the prospective population-based Young Finns Study (n = 960-1679). Social intolerance was evaluated with the Social Intolerance Scale in 1997, 2001, and 2011; cognitive performance with the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery in 2011; cognitive styles in 1997; and socioeconomic factors in 1980 (childhood) and 2011 (adulthood); and polygenic cognitive potential was calculated based on genome-wide association studies.
We found that nonrational thinking, polygenic cognitive potential, cognitive performance, or socioeconomic factors were not related to social intolerance. Regarding cognitive styles, low flexibility (B = -0.759, p < .001), high perseverance (B = 1.245, p < .001), and low persistence (B = -0.329, p < .001) predicted higher social intolerance consistently in the analyses.
When developing prejudice-reduction interventions, it should be considered that educational level or cognitive performance may not be crucial for development of social intolerance. Adopting certain cognitive styles may play more important roles in development of social intolerance.
低教育水平、低认知能力和某些认知风格被认为容易导致社会不容忍和偏见。然而，这些证据受到样本量较小、忽略混杂变量和遗传因素以及对单一类型偏见的狭隘关注的限制。我们在 15 年的随访中调查了教育、多基因认知潜力、认知表现和认知风格与成年后社会不容忍之间的关系。
我们使用了前瞻性人群基础的 Young Finns 研究（n=960-1679）的数据。社会不容忍程度在 1997 年、2001 年和 2011 年使用社会不容忍量表进行评估；认知表现使用剑桥神经心理测试自动化电池在 2011 年进行评估；认知风格在 1997 年进行评估；社会经济因素在 1980 年（儿童期）和 2011 年（成年期）进行评估；多基因认知潜力是根据全基因组关联研究计算的。
我们发现非理性思维、多基因认知潜力、认知表现或社会经济因素与社会不容忍无关。就认知风格而言，低灵活性（B=-0.759，p<0.001）、高毅力（B=1.245，p<0.001）和低坚持性（B=-0.329，p<0.001）在分析中一致预测更高的社会不容忍。
在制定减少偏见的干预措施时，应该考虑到教育水平或认知表现可能不是社会不容忍发展的关键。采用某些认知风格可能在社会不容忍的发展中发挥更重要的作用。
