By Granite State Report
Cognitive Sophistication, Religion, and Trump’s Base: What the Data Reveal
When Donald Trump declared, “I love the poorly educated,” it was more than a throwaway applause line. New research shows it was a window into the coalition that carried him to the White House.
A peer-reviewed study in Social Science Quarterly by Darren Sherkat of Southern Illinois University examined the 2016 election and found a clear pattern: the less cognitively sophisticated a voter, the more likely they were to support Trump .
The Power of Sophistication
Cognitive sophistication—measured here through vocabulary testing and education—was strongly linked to political behavior. Sherkat’s analysis of 2018 General Social Survey data showed that:
- People with stronger verbal ability and higher education were more likely to vote overall.
- But they were also far less likely to vote for Trump. Each step up in verbal ability reduced the odds of a Trump vote by as much as 14 percent .
- Having a four-year college degree decreased the odds of supporting Trump by over 40 percent, even after controlling for religion, region, and income .
In other words, sharper cognitive tools made voters more skeptical of Trump’s message.
Religion as a Mediator
Sherkat’s models revealed that cognitive sophistication shaped not just political choices but religious commitments. Sophisticated voters were more likely to adopt secular views—such as rejecting the Bible as literal truth—and less likely to identify with sectarian Protestant denominations.
That matters because religion was a strong predictor of Trump loyalty:
- Sectarian Protestants and biblical literalists leaned heavily toward Trump.
- Secular voters and non-Christians overwhelmingly rejected him, reducing the odds of a Trump vote by 70–90 percent compared to Protestants .
- Viewing the Bible as a book of fables cut the odds of supporting Trump by 80 percent .
The study concludes that Trump’s base was anchored not only in white evangelical Christianity but also in anti-secular, anti-intellectual worldviews.
Anti-Intellectualism as Strategy
This research underscores what historian Richard Hofstadter warned decades ago: American conservatism has long leaned on anti-intellectualism. Trump turbocharged it. His plain, low-grade rhetoric was tailor-made for voters with limited educational attainment and lower cognitive sophistication. By rejecting nuance, he connected with audiences primed to distrust “eggheads,” scientists, and journalists .
The Takeaway for Today
Sherkat’s conclusion is blunt: Trump packaged xenophobia and racism “for an undereducated and unsophisticated audience” . And while the poorly educated may vote less often than college graduates, their overwhelming support for Trump in 2016 reveals how resentment politics can overcome the barriers of turnout.
In 2025, the divide between the cognitively sophisticated and those who reject “elitist” expertise remains central to American politics. As secular voters grow in number and sectarian Protestants shrink, the battle lines of the next election may not just be red versus blue—it may be reason versus resentment.
