Category: Intelligence

People with higher intelligence tend to share this characteristic.

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

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).

One more benefit of being above average in intelligence.

People with higher IQs are likely to live longer, according to research.

Those with high intelligence in childhood are less likely to get heart disease, strokes, respiratory diseases and dementia later on.

Higher intelligence may allow people to learn better health behaviours and cope more effectively with problems over the years.

Some of the lowered risk is down to the fact that more intelligent people are less likely to smoke.

The conclusions come from a Scottish study that included 938 people who were followed for over 25 years.

The results showed that for every 15 points of higher IQ, people’s risk of dying was reduced by 17 percent.

This study found the link between IQ and longevity was strongest in children brought up in poorer neighbourhoods.

Higher intelligence, then, is particularly beneficial to the longevity of poorer people, said Dr Carole L. Hart, the study’s first author:

“The significant interaction found between IQ and deprivation suggests that IQ in childhood is less important in terms of mortality for people who live in more affluent areas in adulthood than for people who live in deprived areas.”

It is not yet clear how IQ is related to longevity, said Dr Hart:

“It is possible that low childhood IQ leads to adult deprivation, which in turn leads to earlier death.”

Some studies have suggested that IQ and longevity are linked to the same sets of genes.

Another possibility is that adverse circumstances, which are often linked to being poor, can lower IQ.

Worse nutrition, educational opportunities and deprived areas may all take their toll on mental development.

Other studies have also suggested that higher IQ leads to a longer life.

The study was published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine (Hart et al., 2003).

Do you pass the financial test of intelligence?

People with high IQs are more patient in financial matters, research finds.

They are willing to wait longer to increase their money and to endure the risks involved.

The survey of 1,000 people in Germany tested how long people would wait for a series of rewards, analogous to putting it into a savings account.

For example, people were given $100 to have now, or they could choose to wait one year to get more.

Would you wait one year to get $110, $120 or $150?

Or would you rather just have the $100 right now?

Professor Armin Falk, study co-author, summarised the results:

“The more intelligent the test subjects were, the more patient and tolerant of risk they were.”

Impatient people generally wanted a higher reward for waiting one year to get their money.

Intelligent people did not demand so much reward for taking the risk.

It seems that intelligence, risk tolerance and patience are closely related.

It is important to see the connections between risk and reward.

Professor Falk said:

 “Anyone who does not have this ability may be better advised to follow the principle of ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'”

The study was published in the American Economic Review (Dohmen et al., 2010).

One common sign of high IQ is obvious in childhood.

Learning to read at an earlier stage is a sign of higher IQ, a study finds.

The better a person’s reading skills at age 7, the higher their intelligence in later life.

It may be that reading from an earlier age helps to improve IQ.

If this is true, then helping children to read sooner may boost their intelligence.

Dr Stuart J. Ritchie, the study’s first author, said:

“Since reading is an ability that can be improved, our findings have implications for reading instruction.

Early remediation of reading problems might aid not only the growth of literacy, but also more general cognitive abilities that are of critical importance across the lifespan.”

The conclusions come from a study of 1,890 twins whose IQ and reading levels were tested between the ages of 7 and 16.

Twins were included because the researchers wanted to rule out the effect of the environment and genes.

It emerged from the results that among each pair of twins, the one that began to read earlier had a higher IQ later on.

Dr Ritchie said:

“If, as our results imply, reading causally influences intelligence, the implications for educators are clear.

Children who don’t receive enough assistance in learning to read may also be missing out on the important, intelligence-boosting properties of literacy.”

Dyslexia

Dyslexia — a type of learning difficulty causing problems with reading and writing — is not a sign of low IQ.

Professor John D. E. Gabrieli, who has published research on dyslexia and IQ, said:

“We found that children who are poor readers have the same brain difficulty in processing the sounds of language whether they have a high or low IQ.

Reading difficulty is independent of other cognitive abilities.”

The study was published in the journal Child Development (Ritchie et al., 2015).

Intelligent people often value novel things and also tend to be offbeat and rebellious.

People with high IQs are more likely to consume mind-altering substances, research finds.

Whether it is alcohol, tobacco or psychoactive drugs like LSD, intelligence and drug-taking are linked.

More intelligent people are also more likely to have sampled a variety of different recreational drugs in the past.

The explanation could be that intelligent people are attracted to novelty or that they do not fear becoming addicted due to higher self-control.

Offbeat and rebellious

On top of this people with higher intelligence are more likely to be original, offbeat and rebellious, research finds.

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.

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.”

These findings fit with another study that has found that people with high IQs drink more alcohol, although they are unlikely to be heavy drinkers.

Another possibility is that more intelligent people are more likely to get bored.

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The findings for fluid intelligence — the brain’s raw speed — were different for men and women.

The brains of people with high IQ have very efficient wiring, research shows.

The brain’s ‘wiring’ or ‘white matter’ refers to the nerve fibres that transmit information between areas.

White matter is sometimes called the superhighway of the brain: it transmits signals and regulates communication.

People with more efficient white matter, the study found, had greater general knowledge.

General knowledge — or as psychologists call it, crystallised intelligence — is one of two broad aspects of intelligence.

Dr Erhan Genç, the study’s first author, said:

“Although we can precisely measure the general knowledge of people and this wealth of knowledge is very important for an individual’s journey through life, we currently know little about the links between general knowledge and the characteristics of the brain.”

For the study, 324 were given brain scans and asked to answer a series of general knowledge questions.

The results showed that people with more efficient structural networks in their brain got more general knowledge questions correct.

Dr Genç said:

“We assume that individual units of knowledge are dispersed throughout the entire brain in the form of pieces of information.

Efficient networking of the brain is essential in order to put together the information stored in various areas of the brain and successfully recall knowledge content.”

The findings for fluid intelligence — the brain’s raw speed — were different for men and women.

Men, it emerged, who had bigger brains tended to have higher fluid intelligence.

Women with better functional connectivity, though, had higher intelligence.

Efficient brain networking is vital for intelligence, said Dr Genç:

“We assume that more efficient networking of the brain contributes to better integration of pieces of information and thus leads to better results in a general knowledge test.”

The study was published in the European Journal of Personality (Genç et al., 2019).