Category: Intelligence

This upbeat emotion is linked to having higher intelligence.

People who feel happier tend to have a higher IQ.

In fact, experiencing positive emotions, feeling lively and wide awake all predict higher intelligence.

The idea that more intelligent people tend to be grumpy or unhappy is probably not true, on average.

Part of this link between intelligence and happiness may be down to life circumstances.

More intelligent people tend to be better off, have higher levels of education and consequently have better jobs.

The findings come from a survey of 6,870 people who were given tests of happiness and IQ.

The results showed that people with higher IQs (120-129) were happier than those with lower IQs (70-99).

The average IQ across the whole population is 100.

The study’s authors write:

“In this large nationally representative study, we found that IQ is associated with self-reported happiness, which provides support for our hypothesis.

Levels of happiness were lowest in the lower IQ groups and highest in the higher IQ groups.”

People with higher IQs tend to have better health, the study also found.

Poor health may be linked to low IQ due to lower learning abilities, the study’s authors write:

“One study suggests that people with lower IQ are more
likely to experience health problems because of a reduced
propensity to learn, reason and problem-solve, and because of difficulties in adhering to complex treatments, which often require following detailed instructions, and self-monitoring.”

Another study has shown that stable happiness is also a sign of higher IQ.

People with higher IQs are just as happy at 31-years-old as they are at 51.

More intelligent people experience fewer drops in their happiness over the years.

In contrast, the happiness of people with lower IQs is not just lower overall, but also goes up and down more over the years.

The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine (Ali et al., 2013).

People with higher intelligence tend to share this characteristic.

People with higher intelligence are more likely to be original, offbeat and rebellious.

More intelligent people have a distinct, individual style and avoid following the crowd.

Non-conformists may be more intelligent because they are less afraid to break society’s conventions.

Being a non-conformist comes with its own dangers, though, the study’s authors write:

“Non-conformist behavior may threaten the belongingness to a social group, or has the potential of enlarging the psychological distance from others.

People who deviate from the group are more likely to be punished, ridiculed, or even rejected by other group members.

…acting in a non-conformist way is less threatening for highly than for less intelligent people.”

The conclusions come from a small study that asked 46 people about their ‘need for uniqueness’ and tested their intelligence.

They were asked whether they agreed with statements like:

• “I do not always need to live by the rules and standards of society.”
• “I tend to express my opinions publicly, regardless of what others say.”
• “When a style of clothing I own becomes too commonplace, I usually quit wearing it.”

The results showed that people with higher IQs were more likely to endorse statements indicating a preference for uniqueness.

More intelligent people may be more resourceful, which explains their independence, the study’s authors write:

“…the more intelligent someone is, the less dependent this person is on the group to acquire resources.

This means that highly intelligent people can afford more non-conformist behavior because of their capacity to secure resources in isolation.

…as general intelligence increases the need to conform to group norms decreases.”

The study was published in the BMJ (Millet, 2007).

Emotional intelligence is linked to success in many areas of life.

People with high emotional intelligence are more successful at work and across many areas of life.

There are five signs of emotional intelligence, according to one model developed by Daniel Goleman:

1. Self-awareness: knowing your own strengths and weakness, as well as drives and values.
2. Self-regulation: being able to control disruptive emotions and adapt to new circumstances.
3. Social skill: capable of managing relationships with other people effectively.
4. Empathy: taking into account other people’s feelings when making decisions.
5. Motivation: a drive to succeed.

Those high in emotional intelligence are aware of their emotions and good at controlling and expressing them.

They can read emotions in others well and know how to manage them to achieve desired goals.

Higher emotional intelligence leads to better relationships with others, higher psychological well-being, greater self-compassion and a more positive perception by others.

The conclusion comes from a ‘meta-analysis’ — a type of study that collects together the results of other studies.

The results showed that emotional intelligence predicted workplace performance over and above personality and IQ.

The authors write that other studies have found that emotional intelligence is…

…a predictor in important domains such as academic performance, job performance, negotiation, leadership, emotional labor, trust, work–family conflict, and stress…”

Daniel Goleman’s model is just one way of thinking about emotional intelligence.

The researchers found, though, that different models and measures all provided insights into people’s emotional intelligence.

Professor Neal Ashkanasy, who was not involved in the research, said:

“By analyzing the numerous studies of emotional intelligence that have been conducted over the last decade, the authors of this article provide an evidence-based account of emotional intelligence, where it works and where it doesn’t.

And, most importantly, which of the various versions of emotional intelligence work the best.

This will prove to be a valuable tool for academic researchers, as well as business consultants and managers.”

The study was published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior (O’Boyle et al., 2010).

This quality is very important for highly intelligent people.

Curiosity is a sign of being smart.

Curiosity could even be as important as intelligence in how well people do in life.

People who are curious ask lots of questions, look for surprises, seek out sensations and make time to search out new ideas.

Intelligence, along with curiosity and some personality factors, predicts successful performance in many areas.

Dr Sophie von Stumm, the study’s first author, said:

“Curiosity is basically a hunger for exploration.

If you’re intellectually curious, you’ll go home, you’ll read the books.

If you’re perceptually curious, you might go traveling to foreign countries and try different foods.”

The conclusions come from an analysis of around 200 separate studies including about 50,000 students.

All the studies examined how personality and intelligence affected academic performance.

The results showed that students who are curious do better in their school work.

Along with being curious, some personality traits are linked to better performance.

Conscientious students, in particular, perform better.

People who are conscientious are more careful, efficient and self-disciplined — and they aim for achievement.

Dr von Stumm said:

“It’s not a huge surprise if you think of it, that hard work would be a predictor of academic performance.”

Taken together, conscientiousness and curiosity were just as important as intelligence in students’ performance.

Curiosity is a very important quality for employers to look for, said Dr von Stumm:

“It’s easy to hire someone who has the done the job before and hence, knows how to work the role.

But it’s far more interesting to identify those people who have the greatest potential for development, i.e. the curious ones.”

The study was published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science (von Stumm et al., 2011).

How high intelligence could have a mental cost for some.

Disorders of mood could be the price some people pay for high intelligence.

Psychologists have found that higher childhood IQ is linked to features of bipolar disorder in young adulthood.

The research adds fuel to the debate over the connection between intelligence, creativity and mental health issues.

For the research 1,881 people were followed from age 8 until they were 22 or 23-years-old.

Their IQ was measured along with any characteristics of mood disorders.

The results showed that having ten more IQ points  at age 8 was linked to being in the top ten per cent for having manic personality traits in their early twenties.

Professor Daniel Smith, one of the study’s authors said:

“A possible link between bipolar disorder and intelligence and creativity has been discussed for many years and many studies have suggested a link.

In this large study, we found that better performance on IQ tests at age eight predicted bipolar features in young adulthood.

We are not saying that high childhood IQ is a clear-cut risk factor for bipolar disorder but rather that there is likely to be a shared biology between intelligence and bipolar disorder which needs to be understood more fully.

Many other factors – including family history of mental illness, childhood adversity, stressful life events and drug misuse – are known to increase an individual’s risk of developing bipolar disorder.

Our finding has implications for understanding of how liability to bipolar disorder may have been selected through generations.

One possibility is that serious disorders of mood such as bipolar disorder are the price that human beings have had to pay for more adaptive traits such as intelligence, creativity and verbal proficiency.

This work will inform future genetic studies at the interface of intelligence, creativity and bipolar disorder, and will help with efforts to improve approaches to the earlier detection of bipolar disorder in adolescents and young adults.”

The study was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry (Smith et al., 2015).

The type of writing that makes you look smarter.

Writing in a simple and straightforward way makes you look smarter.

When readers find it easy to understand something, they assume the writer is more intelligent.

On the other hand, using long words in a clumsy way makes people look less intelligent.

Oddly enough, the use of complicated or unusual fonts also makes people looks less intelligent.

It is far better to stick to normal fonts like Times New Roman or Arial and everyday words that everyone can understand.

Of course, sometimes long words are necessary, such as in technical documents.

Professor Daniel Oppenheimer, the study’s author, explained:

“It’s important to point out that this research is not about problems with using long words but about using long words needlessly.

Anything that makes a text hard to read and understand, such as unnecessarily long words or complicated fonts, will lower readers’ evaluations of the text and its author.”

Write simple, sound brilliant

Professor Oppenheimer carried out five studies to reach his conclusions.

People were asked to read and judge various writing samples, including graduate school applications, research abstracts and a translation of the philosopher Descartes.

Readers consistently rated the writers of simpler language as more intelligent.

Professor Oppenheimer said:

“The continuing popularity amongst students of using big words and attractive font styles may be due to the fact that they may not realise these techniques could backfire.

One thing seems certain: write as simply and plainly as possible and it’s more likely you’ll be thought of as intelligent.”

Naturally, the study’s title is: “Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly”.

The study was published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology (Oppenheimer, 2005).

This trait is a distinct part of human intelligence.

Intelligent people are more likely to trust others, research finds.

This may be because more intelligent people are better judges of character.

The study analysed data from the ‘General Social Survey’, which asks a nationally representative sample of Americans about their attitudes and characteristics

The researchers focused on the idea of generalised trust: not trust of close friends and family, but of other unknown members of society.

People were asked:

“Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?”

They found that people who were more trusting were also happier and had higher levels of physical health.

It also emerged that trust was not just a proxy for intelligence: in other words intelligence could not explain the links between either trust and health or trust and happiness.

The study’s lead author, Noah Carl of Oxford University, said:

“Intelligence is shown to be linked with trusting others, even after taking into account factors like marital status, education and income.

This finding supports what other researchers have argued, namely that being a good judge of character is a distinct part of human intelligence which evolved through natural selection.”

It’s smart to trust

The research chimes with a number of established findings about the link between trust at the individual and societal level.

Previous research has found that people who are more trusting are:

• More likely to start a business.
• More likely to do voluntary work.
• Happier with their lives.
• Have better physical health.

In addition, societies which have higher levels of generalised trust overall also have:

• Public institutions which are more efficient.
• Higher levels of social capital.
• Greater economic growth.

The study’s coauthor, Professor Francesco Billari, said:

“People who trust others seem to report better health and greater happiness.

The study of social trust therefore has wider implications in public health, governmental policy and private charity, and there are good reasons to think that governments, religious groups and other civic organizations should try to cultivate more trust in society.”

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE (Carl & Billari, 2014).