Readers of The Bell Curve will, of necessity, learn much about this cognitive elite. Their movie-going tends to be highly selective. They seldom read the national tabloids that have the nation's highest circulation figures or listen to the talk radio that has become a major form of national communication for other parts of America. They are also, even at an early age, more politically inclined than average. Theirs is not a high culture, but it is distinctive enough to set them off from the rest of the country in many important ways.
Members tend, in particular, to live in virtual isolation from nonmembers.
I doubt I've had a friend or regular social acquaintance since who scored less than 1100 on his or her SAT boards. Isolated or not, members of the cognitive elite tend to earn substantially more than other Americans. The figure shown here, which appears on page 516 of The Bell Curve, provides historical perspective. Their new-found riches, Herrnstein and Murray allege, tend to bring the political interests of the cognitive elite into alignment with those of the already affluent. A merging of the cognitive and the affluent elites.