During their formative years, smart people often experience success in school, receiving the approval of teachers and regular affirmation of their cognitive strengths. They become more confident in their ability to figure things out for themselves. With this, comes a habit of forming their own opinions, independent of the in-groups to which they belong. Sometimes people with significantly above-average processing skills think differently from others and find themselves unable to fit in socially. This widens the gap between themselves and the other members of their ingroup, increasing their inclination to reach opinions that may differ from group consensus. This means that people in the high IQ category usually have less ingroup loyalty and are more likely to reach opinions objectively, by observing and drawing their own conclusions. For example, it took Hi-Q people such as Copernicus and Galileo to dissent from the common consensus that the earth is the center of the solar system, and resist the indoctrination that was accepted by the majority. The greatest departures from consensus have almost inevitably come from those in the Hi-Q group, including Socrates, Confucius, Einstein, and Tesla.
Most people of average intelligence can self-reference to understand how the other members of their group feel, and have a closer social interaction with the ingroups to which they belong. This greater group cohesion prompts them to absorb the opinions of their ingroup by osmosis. By accepting the consensus of their ingroup they are valued as loyal members and receive the camaraderie and empathy that come with group membership. Furthermore, many in this group, never having felt themselves as intellectually advantaged, often lack the confidence to challenge the opinions formed by those who might have greater insight. This makes them less likely to challenge group opinion and more likely to “buy into” pseudoscientific or conspiracy theories.
This suggests that smart people are less likely to engage in such theories. However, high IQ people do have a vulnerability when they fall into confirmation bias. As psychologist Peter Ditto of the University of California asserts:
Motivated reasoning [i.e., forming opinions skewed by emotion] is a pervasive tendency of human cognition. People are capable of being thoughtful and rational, but our wishes, hopes, fears and motivations often tip the scales to make us more likely to accept something as true if it supports what we want to believe.
This is true for people of all intelligence levels; however, the Hi-Q people have more sophisticated cognitive tools to rationalize their “emotionally-based” decisions. Matthew Hornsey, professor of psychology at the University of Queensland who studies the processes that influence people to accept or reject scientific messages, states, “It’s almost as though the sophisticated approach to science gives [Hi-Q] people more tools to curate their own sense of reality,” https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/05/alternative-facts
Escapist Harry Houdini once claimed, “As a rule, I have found that the greater brain a man has, and the better he is educated, the easier it has been to mystify him.” So, average individuals are probably more likely than smart people to engage in pseudoscience and conspiracy theories, but some smart people are vulnerable to self-deception and are more adept at justifying their beliefs.
