Category: Intelligence

High IQ brains have greater functional connectivity and higher synchronisation, but this has an unexpected real-world effect.

Intelligent people take longer to solve difficult problems than those with lower IQs, a study finds.

The reason seems to be that people with higher IQs avoid jumping to conclusions, which means they are more likely to end up with the correct answer.

On simpler problems, though, people with high IQs do indeed answer more quickly.

Greater functional connectivity

The conclusions come from a study of 650 people who were given a series of logical problems to solve, which became steadily harder.

From a combination of brain scans and simulations of brain activity, the researchers found that the brains of smarter people took longer to solve difficult problems.

High IQ brains have greater functional connectivity and higher synchronisation.

It is these properties that allow the more intelligent brain to ‘hold out’ while complex information is being processed.

Dr Michael Schirner, the study’s first author, said:

“Synchronization, i.e., the formation of functional networks in the brain, alters the properties of working memory and thus the ability to ‘endure’ prolonged periods without a decision.

In more challenging tasks, you have to store previous progress in working memory while you explore other solution paths and then integrate these into each other.

This gathering of evidence for a particular solution may sometimes takes longer, but it also leads to better results.

We were able to use the model to show how excitation-inhibition balance at the global level of the whole brain network affects decision-making and working memory at the more granular level of individual neural groups.”

Brain simulations

To reach their conclusions, the researchers used simulations of brain activity, personalised for each of the 650 people in the study.

Professor Petra Ritter, study co-author, explained:

“We can reproduce the activity of individual brains very efficiently.

We found out in the process that these in silico brains behave differently from one another—and in the same way as their biological counterparts. Our virtual avatars match the intellectual performance and reaction times of their biological analogues.”

The simulations revealed that the brains of people with lower IQs cannot wait until all the various areas of the brain have finished their processing steps before ‘jumping to conclusions’.

In contrast, greater synchrony in high IQ brains allowed time for all the brain regions to complete their processing and deliver up an answer that was more likely to be correct.

Related

• Human intelligence arises from the efficiency of all brain regions put together.
• American IQ is dropping — and it’s happening elsewhere too.
• The biggest myth about IQ is the assumption that it cannot change.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications (Shirner et al., 2023).

Not only does hearing this statement lower IQ, it also makes people more aggressive, other studies have shown.

Being socially rejected massively reduces a person’s effective IQ, research finds.

People told, “you will end up alone in life” experienced drops in analytical reasoning skills of 30 percent.

Their IQs also dropped around 25 percent.

Not only does rejection lower IQ, it also makes people more aggressive, other studies have shown.

The results suggest that intelligence may have evolved primarily to facilitate social relations.

For the study, people took a personality test and some were then told (falsely) that it indicated they would end up alone in life.

Afterwards they were given an IQ test.

The study’s authors explain the results:

“In all three studies, people exhibited significant cognitive decrements after they were told that they were likely to end up alone in life.

Thus, the prospect of social exclusion reduced people’s capacity for intelligent thought.

Moreover, the decrements in intelligent performance qualified as large effects every time.”

The researchers think that people’s IQ drops because they are in distress:

“…we can best explain the pattern of cognitive decrements by proposing that social exclusion constitutes a threatening, aversive event but that people strive to suppress their emotional distress, and the resulting drain on their executive function impairs their controlled processes.”

In other words, being told they would end up alone made it harder for them to concentrate, because they were trying to suppress negative emotions.

There is an intimate link between intelligence and social relations, the authors write:

“Our results are more consistent with the view that
intelligence evolved as a means to support and facilitate social relations rather than to compensate for the absence of their advantages.

[…]

Our findings could even be taken to suggest that people responded as if being excluded from social groups removed the need for intelligent thought.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Baumeister et al., 2002).

It could be possible to increase your IQ.

Young adults who are fitter have a higher IQ and are more likely to go on to higher education, research finds.

Higher IQ is linked to a higher heart and lung capacity, not to muscular strength.

Heart and lung capacity was most strongly linked to verbal comprehension and logical thinking skills.

Professor Michael Nilsson, one of the study’s authors, said:

 “Being fit means that you also have good heart and lung capacity and that your brain gets plenty of oxygen.

This may be one of the reasons why we can see a clear link with fitness, but not with muscular strength.

We are also seeing that there are growth factors that are important.”

The researchers found that the link is down to environmental factors, not genes.

In other words, it could be possible to increase your IQ by getting fitter.

Dr Maria Åberg, the study’s first author, said:

“We have also shown that those youngsters who improve their physical fitness between the ages of 15 and 18 increase their cognitive performance.

This being the case, physical education is a subject that has an important place in schools, and is an absolute must if we want to do well in maths and other theoretical subjects.”

The conclusions come from a study of 1.2 million Swedish men doing their military service, who were born between 1950 and 1976.

Another study have shown that two hours of extra physical activity per week can boost children’s performance in school (Käll et al., 2014).

Children doing more exercise doubled their chances of hitting national learning goals in that study.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Aberg et al., 2009).

How to use clothes to appear more competent.

Wearing more clothing makes you look more competent, a study finds.

Something as simple as taking off a sweater is enough to make you look less competent, the researchers found.

The finding applies to both men and women, said Dr Kurt Gray, the study’s first author:

“An important thing about our study is that, unlike much previous research, ours applies to both sexes.

It also calls into question the nature of objectification because people without clothes are not seen as mindless objects, but they are instead attributed a different kind of mind.”

The effect occurs because seeing more flesh encourages us to think about a person’s body, rather than their mind.

Dr Gray said:

“We also show that this effect can happen even without the removal of clothes.

Simply focusing on someone’s attractiveness, in essence concentrating on their body rather than their mind, makes you see her or him as less of an agent [someone who acts and plans] more of an experiencer.”

Showing bare skin, though, does have some advantages, explained Dr Gray:

“A focus on the body, and the increased perception of sensitivity and emotion it elicits might be good for lovers in the bedroom.

Others appear to be less inclined to harm people with bare skin and more inclined to protect them.

In one experiment, for example, people viewing male subjects with their shirts off were less inclined to give those subjects uncomfortable electric shocks than when the men had their shirts on.”

The study’s authors write:

“Even more than robbing someone of agency, the increased experience that may accompany body perceptions may lead those who are characterized in terms of their bodies to be seen as more reactive and emotional, traits that may also serve to work against career advancement.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Gray et al., 2011).

The psychologists predicted that intellectual humility would be linked to better results on coursework — but this wasn’t the case.

People who are confident in their intellectual abilities tend to have a higher IQ, a study finds.

Those who have confidence bordering on arrogance do better in academic tests.

People with higher IQs tend to agree with statements like “I believe my own ideas are superior to others.”

The intellectually arrogant tend to be seen by others as dominating the group and being extraverted.

Intellectually arrogant people tend to be the centre of attention and also score higher marks in tests, the study found.

On the down side, the intellectually arrogant are not liked as well as their peers who are more humble.

Professor Wade C. Rowatt, study co-author, said:

“One possibility is that people who view themselves as intellectually arrogant know what they know and that translates to increases in academic performance.”

The conclusions come from a study of over 100 students.

The authors thought that intellectual humility would be linked to better results on coursework.

However, it was the intellectually arrogant who got the best scores.

Dr Benjamin R. Meagher, the study’s first author, still thinks humility is a vital trait:

“What I think is important about intellectual humility is its necessity for not only science, but for just learning generally — and that applies to the classroom, a work setting, wherever.

Learning something new requires first acknowledging your own ignorance and being willing to make your ignorance known to others.

People clearly differ in terms of their willingness to do something like that, but that willingness to learn, change one’s mind and value the opinion of others is really needed if people and groups are going to develop and grow.”

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Meagher et al., 2015).