Do Harley-Davidson Owners Have Low IQs?

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

In a new study that shows the relationship between “Likes” on Facebook and intelligence, researchers at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. conclude in their findings that Harley-Davidson owners have low IQs.

The study is headlined “Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior” and was published  last week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (or PNAS).

The study says that more than 58,000 volunteers provided their Facebook “Likes” and detailed demographic profiles for the researchers, who then studied the data. The resulting study stated that:

“For example, the best predictors of high intelligence include ‘Thunderstorms,’ ‘The Colbert Report,’ ‘Science,’ and ‘Curly Fries,’ whereas low intelligence was indicated by ‘Sephora,’ ‘I Love Being A Mom,’ ‘Harley-Davidson,’ and ‘Lady Antebellum.'”

While some of the language in the study reads like it’s out of a manual for hoaxers, and the items in the above paragraph could easily have been thought up by the satirical website The Onion, a little superficial digging provided no proof that the study was anything other than legit.

Then again, say the abbreviation for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America out loud and what do you get?

Update (10:15 a.m.): I’ve emailed Harley-Davidson for a comment.