Prev Next
Featured Quizzes
Politix Daily Headlines
Featured Debates
Issues

See all 17 issues

People
White House

See all people

FAUX

Hoax Study: Fox Viewers Have an IQ of 80

Yahoo and others fall for dubious survey

Next>

by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: Sodahead

A study released last week claims that Fox News viewers have an average IQ of 80 - which is 20 points lower than the national average.

The study has won national media attention via Yahoo News, where it's been Tweeted 500+ times and gained over 600 comments. It's become one of the top ten "hot" politics topics on Reddit, and it was also written up at the Daily Paul.

Unfortunately, the study looks a lot like a hoax.

The Yahoo story is based on a press release supposedly published by the "Intelligence Institute," a supposed think-tank that doesn't exist. The press release provides no links to the "Institute" or to the study – the only link takes you to an unrelated study published by Fairleigh Dickinson University in May.

The study's alleged author, P. Nichols, told a remarkably unconvincing story when reached by phone. He explained to PJMedia's Charlie Martin that he couldn't release the study because of a confidentiality agreement. And he confessed to a very dubious method: he collected data by calling households in rural areas where he suspected residents would be ill-informed and uneducated. In other words, he deliberately chose study participants likely to seem "low IQ."

"Nichols" also cited a spurious-sounding motive for his study: he told PJMedia that it was commissioned by a Republican group who wanted to discredit the Tea Party (and presumably Fox-watching) sector of the GOP.

Via Yahoo News, Reddit, and PJMedia.
Like this article? B Vote Up
?

Why do you think some media folks were so ready to believe the study?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • methinks
    !
    When faced with the truth, liberals resort to foaming at the mouth. Your post exemplifies that.

    Oh, and I didn't mean to vote you up! I wish I could vote you down.
  • o
    Sabio
    !
    amen to that! leftists always turn to hate and violence = bill ayers, jeremiah wright, weather underground, al sharpton, jesse jackson, you name it and leftist are always tied with hatred, rage and violence. that is mainly due to them not having the brain capacity to think beyond violence in complex situations therefore i believe they are the ones with low bread IQ!
  • mudzangandoro
    !
    acchokiefan Unlike the previous pal, I actually voted u up for real!! When Karl Rove had fox viewers thinking that Mitt Romney had solidified a win in Ohio, I was busy LOL on my couch. That's Fox News for ya!!!

  • View all 66 replies >

  • o
    NO-BAMA
    !
    Because they are stupid.
    Why is politix running this? Because they think its funny and anything that they can "run with" and continue to show their lib leaning ways is acceptable to them.
    They would be screaming boycott. And racism if this "study" came out with the opposite findings. Which in turn actually shows the mentality of the "journalists" on this website and the media outlets as a whole.
  • dances-weebles
    !
    @methinks you've got to admit, it's a nice play on the name. there isn't much that one can do with msnbc... i mean, where do you go with it?

  • View all 14 replies >

  • CharlieRosencr
    !
    @Sonny

    I don't know. I'm sure there are people of all intelligence levels who watch fox. Its really not kind or fair to generalize.
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    Well based on the quality of foxs' journalism, I could understand how they believed the story. I watch occasionaly for entertainment, but to watch it regularly for news, yea, 80 seems about right..
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    PNWest: "I must confess that I fell for this."

    We're not surprised at all. Just because people take personal responsibility for their lives and shun getting free things from the government does not mean they have an IQ of 80, it means they have an integrity quotient about 80.
  • PNWest
    !
    @Neo_NtheMatrix I take full responsibility for being fooled by this study. As I explained it seemed credible in light of other studies that say pretty much the same thing. I don't know you well enough to comment on your integrity quotient.
  • Post Removed by Moderators

  • View all 38 replies >

  • bsking
    !
    why they were so eager to believe it?
    simple , that's 1 of the top rules for Saul Alinskyites... ridicule your opponent. the media does this every single day... Obama's campaign and all of his surrogates did it to Mitt Romney every single day...

    no secret for anyone who is paying attention
  • Zazziness
    !
    It might be that Fox News fans don't know how to capitalize or punctuate a sentence while they natter about their paranoid fantasies and it leaves an impression on people.
  • Zazziness
    !
    @bsking Was your point that people notice when you cannot effectively communicate in your native tongue? If so, you proved that all on your own.
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    I don't have the book, is that a direct quote? In any case, Obamas surrogates did it to romney every day. I watched the primary, so now your claiming gingrich, perry, bauchman, and cain were obama surrpgates? Because they constantly ridiculed romney,onths befor Obamas' people got into the act...
  • bsking
    !
    you know this will be like saying that anybody who watches ABC CBS NBC... NPR CNN MSNBC are all communists..... well wait yeah that that's a bad example isn't it.. after all the story about Fox was a hoax wasn't it.
  • Ashstop
    !
    @PoliticalSpice
    Yes I do, the Internet is the new information source , the liberials will believe anything the left says, just a thought:
    Last week Iran claimed to have captured one of our drones.. The WH came out and denied it.. For the first time in my life I believe Iran over our own leaders!!! They've proved they'll say or deny anything to save face!!! Then the left media will back it up and it becomes the " new truth" wether it is or not.
  • HughAkston
    !
    @Ashstop Lately I've been watching RT from Moscow. It's gotten to the point where I'll believe the damned Russians before I believe ABC, CBS, NBC, or CNN. The four previously mentioned networks should be renamed "The Potemkin Village News". Their only purpose is to paint a rosy picture of everything so Obama doesn't look bad. They're like Pravda in the old Soviet Union days.

    I predict that in the not too distant future they'll be referring to Republicans and the Tea Party as "wreckers". I'll give the Soviets one thing, they sure had a lot of colorful terms..... parasitism and Oblomovism were among my favorites. We can be certain of another thing too......the Republicans will be running around apologizing to anybody that'll listen.
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    @Ashstop
    Well Iran is probably telling the truth, but that happened in Iran Contra scandel too. The NY Times picked up a story about a year before the scandel broke reporting on a story from a Lebanese newspaper. The Reagan admin denied it, eventually it turned out everything in it was true, so I am never that quick to beleive u.s. policy makers. Indeed I could give examples much further back than the reagan admin.
    But if the media is so contolled by the left ehy was it the ny times that punlished story after story egging Bush on to go to war with Iraq, claiming he still had chemical weapons, etc. Why did the ny times run editorials telling dems in congress to approve reagans cabinet choices since he had won the election? Why did the des moines register and so many other newspapers endorse romney over obama?
  • Ashstop
    !
    @PoliticalSpice
    They endorced him because he is pro business, all the newspapers and magazines are struggling and need someone not anti business in charge, their left leaning views are why I quit watching and reading them, IMO that's why they are hurting, not because the country is anti business, without big business to me there wlll be no new jobs,

  • View all 8 replies >

  • u
    Buckfan4life2
    !
    Do you, and liberal media and all you liberal people in general do anything else with your life or were you souly born to torment and condemn and remind all of us conservatives that we and Fox news are all crazy redneck hillbiily uneducated bible thumpers racist? Karma a Bitch Liberals ITs Going to be Storming on their little rainbow parade soon
  • PNWest
    !
    I for one don't think that ALL of you conservatives are "crazy redneck hillbiily uneducated bible thumpers racists". Some of you are greedy plutocratic fascists.
  • DARSB
    !
    What's not to like? Foxian readers will share the link out of pique and high dudgeon; the others will read and share because it confirms their bias. Yahoo! gets clicks either way.
  • Romans120
    !
    @Denizen_Kate ... Ah yes; the exhibition of ethnocentrism by the liberal media elitists. Your implied statement that FOX viewers would need to use a dictionary to look up such words is both presumptuous and arrogant. Perhaps your use of a thesaurus would enlighten you. "Righteous anger" is a phrase that comes to mind without even looking it up. Perhaps a peek inside your own inner bias would show just how wrong you might be. Of course you already know that "pique" and "peek" are different. Here's a statement that might "pique" your interest: Just because somebody needs a dictionary to look up a word doesn't mean they are intellectually inferior. Far from it. It should rather demonstrate that they are willing to learn something new, or that they are refreshing knowledge long forgotten. Of course an intellectual elitist snob would never consider such a point of view. They think they already know it all. Oh, and have a nice day!:)
  • u
    Cheenoguy
    !
    @Romans120
    While you have your dictionary look up words like joke or tease. Also look up the words way, to, and serious. Combine them and you might see how you took this.
    :)
  • u
    Cheenoguy
    !
    @Romans120
    Now see if I took things as seriously as you did in your last post I would probably go off about being critical of what was, in this case, forgetting to type the final o.
    But alas, it is funny that you were able to see my grammatical error.
    Seriously though, she's one of the more pleasant people on this board and was simply making a joke about the OP using such big words in a post about a story discussing whether a certain group of people have low IQs. This gets to be a hostile place and sometimes you just have to laugh at the silly jokes that are clearly meant in good fun.

  • View all 9 replies >

  • Jean
    !
    because the media themselves love to further lies against the right and especially the Tea Party. i had a discussion on another thread about the media lieing. here is a perfect example of just that. they are furthering this lie by giving ANY credibility to it by putting it in print. i watch FOX and I was in the top 10% of my class of 200. i know others who watch FOX and they are anything but stupid. get a grip. try dealing with the right and the Tea Party with some FACTS for a change. it would be refreshing!
  • u
    no_sense
    !
    The mainstream media loved this story because they are mostly liberal. I watch Fox news sometimes for just the news, not for the commentators or pundits. I have an IQ of 157 and
    I live in a rural area. I own my own business and I work hard. Let's try not to stereotype, please.
  • DARSB
    !
    The MSM is "mostly liberal" but you don't want anyone to "stereotype." That was a fine chuckle, thanks.
  • DARSB
    !
    @no_sense There are frequent claims about Fox that puzzle me. On one hand, there are people who, like you, believe there is a political bias in "mainstream media." At the same time Foxians rather proudly point to claims of Fox News' crushing Nielsen ratings. Somehow, despite the claims about ratings, Fox is not identified as part of the MSM. Apparently, a "conservative bias" in news reporting is okay.

    To reply directly to your question, no, I don't believe there is a deliberate bias in news media. People who say there is often refer to "mainstream media" as if the phrase itself is evidence. Supporting examples are rare in this discussion.

    But that doesn't mean a person can't find some "evidence" of something like it if they just look hard enough.
  • u
    no_sense
    !
    @DARSB Well, we're going to have to agree to disagree. While I do think that Fox news is pretty conservative (I'm just talking about the straight news here, not the pundits), I also think ABC, CBS, and NBC are pretty liberal. I usually get my news from the internet or CNN, and even then I take it with a grain of salt. I do wish there was a completely unbiased straight news source.
  • methinks
    !
    The reason is that some media folks are angry liberals and salivate over crap like this. This is a stupid topic meant to incite a nasty argument. Thanks, Mary.
  • u
    no_sense
    !
    Anyone who has any knowlege of special needs people knows that an IQ of 80 is mostly functional, but probably has neither understanding of nor interest in the news. I highly doubt that the majority of people with an IQ of 80 watch any news at all.
  • u
    no_sense
    !
    @Denizen_Kate Maybe in your community they do, but in my small rural area they are too busy doing drugs and popping out welfare babies to even think about voting.
    As long as they have their food stamps, medicaid, rent assistance, and free phones, they don't care about anything except their next tattoo.
  • u
    RealityOne
    !
    @no_sense

    I KNOW! Those free Reagan phones that Ronald Reagan began with that FCC Lifeline program in 1984! I mean come on! After GW Bush handed out the first cell phones of the program in 2006 you have poor people who can communicate! 250 minutes per month on a $10 cell phone with no camera or internet! Who wants poor people to have THAT?
    I know that the phones are paid for by a pool created by telecom companies but who cares? I just a white redneck scumbag who loves to complain about anything!
  • Zazziness
    !
    @RealityOne Thank you. The complaints about the lifeline phones just drive me nuts. I have to assume the people whining about it don't understand what service is provided but that never stops them.
  • R Load more comments...