Category: Intelligence

The trait is not normally associated with intelligent people.

People who are generous by nature have a higher IQ, research finds.

Generous people are unselfish and sometimes deny themselves so that others can have more.

Although generosity is not something people usually associate with intelligence, psychological research clearly shows a link.

Intelligent people may be more generous partly because they can afford it.

People with higher IQs generally have greater resources, or can expect to recover what they have given away later on.

The conclusions come from a study in which 96 people played games that involved either donating to others or keeping things for themselves.

The results revealed that intelligent people were more generous to others.

In contrast, those who kept more for themselves tended to be less intelligent.

The study’s authors used the results of SAT tests, which can be converted into approximate IQ scores.

They write:

“We find that subjects who perform better on the Math portion of the SAT [Scholastic Aptitude Test] are more generous in both the dictator game and the SVO [Social Value Orientation] measure.

Our results involving SAT scores […] suggest that measures of cognitive ability, which are less sensitive to the intrinsic motivation of the subject, are positively related to generosity.”

The study was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (Chen et al., 2013).

The link helps explain ‘the halo effect‘, the idea that the mind assumes that what is beautiful is good.

Attractive people are also likely to be more intelligent.

People who are physically attractive can have IQs up to 14 percent higher than the less attractive.

The results come from data on 17,419 children in the UK who have been followed since 1958.

Attractive male children have 13.6 more IQ points than their unattractive peers.

Meanwhile, female children have 11.4 more IQ points.

This is the difference between being of average and high intelligence.

People unconsciously assume that better looking people are more intelligent.

It is part of what psychologists call ‘the halo effect‘: the mind assumes that what is beautiful is good.

Hollywood stars demonstrate the halo effect perfectly.

Because they are often attractive and likeable we naturally assume they are also intelligent, friendly, display good judgement and so on.

As the study’s authors write:

“Individuals perceive physically attractive others to be more intelligent than physically unattractive others.

While most researchers dismiss this perception as a ‘bias’ or ‘stereotype’, we contend that individuals have this perception because beautiful people indeed are more intelligent.”

The authors warn that the finding should not be used as the basis for discrimination or prejudice:

“Our contention that beautiful people are more intelligent is purely scientific.

It is not a prescription for how to treat or judge others.”

Tall and intelligent

A second sign of higher intelligence is being taller.

The reason is that the genes that are correlated with height are also correlated with intelligence.

The conclusion comes from a study of the DNA of 6,815 people.

Of course, there are still people who are short and intelligent, plus those who are tall and dim.

But, on average, there is a small association between being taller and having higher intelligence.

The studies were both published in the journal Intelligence (Kanazawa, 2011; Kanazawa & Kovar, 2004).

The type of music that signals a high IQ..

People who like instrumental music tend to have higher IQs, research finds.

Instrumental music includes everything that does not have lyrics, such as ambient, classical, smooth jazz, big band and some film soundtracks.

Almost everyone, whatever their IQ, though, likes vocal music.

A preference for vocal music does not provide a signal about intelligence.

The reason that higher IQ is linked to the preference for instrumental music has nothing to do with the cognitive complexity of the music.

Opera, for example, is often seen as complex, but it says nothing about people’s intelligence.

The study’s authors write:

“It would be difficult to make the case that big-band music is more cognitively complex than classical music.

On the other extreme, as suspected, preference for rap music is significantly negatively correlated with intelligence.

However, preference for gospel music is even more strongly negatively correlated with it.

It would be difficult to make the case that gospel is less cognitively complex than rap.”

The conclusions come from two surveys of thousands of people who were asked about their musical preferences and given IQ tests.

Both found a link between higher intelligence and preference for instrumental music.

The results showed that…

“…net of age, race, sex, education, family income, religion, current and past marital status and number of children, more intelligent Americans are more likely to prefer instrumental music such as big band, classical and easy listening than less-intelligent Americans.”

An evolutionary explanation

The explanation for this link between IQ and musical preferences may go back into our evolutionary past.

Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, the study’s co-author, thinks that instrumental musical is more ‘evolutionary novel’ and therefore linked to a higher IQ.

This explanation is highly debatable (see Dutton, 2013), but the link is still fascinating.

The study was published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (Kanazawa & Perina, 2011).

The trait is associated with lower full-scale intelligence and lower verbal IQ.

Neurotic people score lower on intelligence tests, but it may not be a true reflection of neurotic people’s IQ.

The link could be down to the neurotic being nervous while taking tests, some psychologists think.

The links have been found between higher neuroticism and lower full-scale intelligence and lower verbal IQ.

Neuroticism is a personality trait that is strongly linked to anxiety, sadness, irritability and self-consciousness.

The study’s authors explain the personality trait of neuroticism:

“Neuroticism reflects a tendency to experience negative emotions, like anxiety and depression.

The six sub-facets of Neuroticism, according to Costa and McCrae (1992) are Anxiety, Anger-hostility, Depression, Self-consciousness, Impulsiveness and Vulnerability.

High scorers tend to be sensitive, emotional, worrying, moody, frequently depressed, often sleep badly and may suffer from various psychosomatic disorders.

[…]

Low scorers tend to be secure, hardy and generally relaxed even under stressful conditions.”

The conclusions come from two studies.

In the first, 646 Dutch twins were given personality and IQ tests.

The researchers found the link between higher neuroticism and lower IQ, concluding that the link was mostly explained by genetics.

The second, though, gave 213 people IQ tests and divided them into two groups based on their anxiety.

The authors explain that neurotic people got more nervous when taking the test:

“…high Neurotics are more stressed under testing conditions than low Neurotics, and that they are even more stressed when they receive information which induces further anxiety.”

The researchers were then able to statistically remove the effects of anxiety on test-takers.

Then, neurotic people did just as well on the IQ test as non-neurotic people.

The authors conclude:

“Neurotics become more anxious under testing conditions, and this anxiety affects their performance on the IQ tests.

It is therefore proposed that Neuroticism is not related to intelligence per se, but to intelligence test performance, which has been proposed in the past (Eysenck, 1971).

This suggestion implies that IQ tests may underestimate the true intelligence of Neurotic individuals.”

The studies were published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Bartels et al., 2012; Moutafi et al., 2006).

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).