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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/1571469/Lower-IQ-people-more-likely-to-support-speed-cameras.html

Lower IQ people "more likely to support speed cameras"

A large-scale research project has concluded that people with lower IQ levels are more likely to be in favour of speed cameras than those with greater intelligence.

The survey, carried out in town centres, by telephone, in print and on the Internet (e.g. on the newsgroup uk.rec.cycling), gathered data on those who supported and opposed cameras, their reasons for doing so, their comments, their analytical skills, and other areas. Some of the survey's findings were as follows:

- Those who had low IQs were generally unable to comprehend the more sophisticated arguments for and against speed cameras. Since they could only understand the more "obvious" and simple concepts, such as "Slower is safer", they usually sided with cameras, since most of the arguments against speed cameras required greater intellect to understand. This was especially true with stupid people who were also arrogant, as they had a greater tendency to think "If I don't understand it, it can't be real" or similar.

- Those who were less skillful drivers were also more likely to support speed cameras. Less skillful drivers tend to drive far below the mean speed, and such drivers tended to welcome "Speed kills" rhetoric without questioning it at all, since this allowed them to delude themselves that "The other [faster] drivers are the dangerous ones and I'm better and safer at driving than all of them".

- Those who supported speed cameras did not generally understand key facts surrounding cameras' effectiveness (or lack of), due either to low IQ or having not come across such facts. The few camera supporters who did understand the important facts were found almost exclusively to be supporting speed cameras for reasons other than road safety, for example an agenda against motorists.

- Public support for speed cameras was on a significant downward trend amid growing anger that the cameras were being used for revenue-raising or social engineering. 82% of respondents said that they opposed speed cameras, of which 53% strongly opposed them. Just 10% of respondents were in favour of speed cameras, down from 28% 5 years ago.

"If you know someone who supports speed cameras, the chances are that they are either ignorant of the key facts regarding cameras, generally thick, or not very nice, since they will probably support cameras either because they don't know the key arguments, they don't understand them, or they support cameras for reasons other than road safety," said Gareth Champion, one of the scientists conducting the research.

"People in the latter category tend invariably to be dishonest, claiming that they support cameras for road safety reasons when they clearly do not. This suggests that they are ashamed of their real agenda, and that they are rather unpleasant and duplicitous in general." Guy Chapman, who recently featured in about.com's "10 Most Hated People On The Internet" vote, was one of the people found to be supporting speed cameras because he disliked motorists, and wanted them to be bullied off the roads "no matter what the death toll".

Chapman was asked to comment, but as usual when being challenged by someone who doesn't agree with him completely in every way, he was sneeringly obnoxious, and evaded the (evidently difficult) questions that we asked, concluding his response with "Fuck off".