Category: Intelligence

The behaviour is linked to more white matter, the brain’s ‘superhighway’.

People who take calculated risks are likely to be smarter than average, research finds.

People making quick decisions and taking chances have more white matter in their brains.

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

The researchers were surprised by the result as they expected the exact opposite: that smarter people would spend more time evaluating the situation before making a decision.

Dr Dagfinn Moe, study co-author, explained:

“We expected to find that young men who spend time considering what they are going to do in a given risk situation would have more highly developed neural networks in their brains than those who make quick decisions and take chances.

This has been well documented in a series of studies, but our project revealed the complete opposite.”

The research involved young men playing a driving game.

The results showed that high-risk takers did not hesitate as long during the game.

Dr Moe thinks that the ability to take risks is under-appreciated by society at large:

“Daring and risk-willingness activate and challenge the brain’s capacity and contribute towards learning, coping strategies and development.

They can stimulate behaviour in the direction of higher levels of risk-taking in people already predisposed to adapt to cope optimally in such situations.

We must stop regarding daring and risk-willingness simply as undesirable and uncontrolled behaviour patterns.”

Seeking out challenges helps to stimulate the brain, which may be why risk-takers have more white matter.

Dr Moe said:

“All the positive brain chemicals respond under such conditions, promoting growth factors that contribute to the development of the robust neural networks that form the basis of our physical and mental skills.

The point here is that if you’re going to take risks, you have to have the required skills.

And these have to be learned.

Sadly, many fail during this learning process — with tragic consequences.

So this is why we’re wording our findings with a Darwinian slant — it takes brains to take risks.”

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE (Vorobyev et al., 2015).

Highly intelligent people are attracted to one type of comedy.

Liking dark humour is a sign of higher intelligence, research finds.

Surprisingly, though, people who like dark humour feel the least aggressive towards others.

In other words, it is not aggressive people who like sick jokes.

People who like dark humour tend to better educated and with higher verbal and nonverbal intelligence.

The study also found that people who prefer more twisted jokes are also likely to be higher in emotional stability,

Dark humour, the study’s authors write, is

“…a kind of humour that treats sinister subjects like death, disease, deformity, handicap or warfare with bitter amusement and presents such tragic, distressing or morbid topics in humorous terms.

Black humour, often called grotesque, morbid, gallows or sick humour, is used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox and cruelty of the modern world.

Characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony, potentially requiring increased cognitive efforts to get the joke.”

For the study, people were asked to rate cartoons by a German humorist called Uli Stein.

For example, one cartoon has a confused man holding a telephone with the voice on the other end of the line saying:

“Here is the answering machine of the self-help association for Alzheimer patients.

If you still remember your topic, please speak after the tone.”

The study’s results revealed that people with higher intelligence were more likely to appreciate jokes like this.

Dark humour, it seems, is more difficult to enjoy without higher intelligence.

“These results support the hypothesis that humour processing involves cognitive as well as affective components and suggest that these variables influence the execution of frame-shifting and conceptual blending in the course of humour processing.”

The study was published in the journal Cognitive Processing (Willinger et al., 2017).

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” — Ernest Hemingway

People with higher IQs are more likely to be happy, research finds.

The finding goes against both Hemingway and the popular idea that being intelligent is somehow predisposes people to unhappiness.

Dr Angela Hassiotis, who led the study, said:

“We found that IQ is associated with self-reported happiness, as levels of happiness were lowest in the lower IQ groups and highest in the higher IQ groups.

This is particularly relevant when considering the current political debates on happiness.”

For the study, data from almost 7,000 people was analysed.

The results showed that people with the lowest IQ (70 – 99) were the least happy in comparison to those with the highest IQs (120 – 129).

It wasn’t just about IQ, though, as Dr Hassiotis explained:

“When looking at the data we saw that people with a lower IQ were less likely to be happier because of higher levels of socio-economic disadvantage such as lower income.

They are also less likely to be happy because they need more help with skills of daily living, have poorer health and report more symptoms of psychological distress.”

Interventions should focus on increasing IQ levels at a young age, said Dr Hassiotis:

“There is also some evidence that long term intensive strategies directed at young children from socially deprived backgrounds can have a positive impact not only on IQ but also on wellbeing and life opportunities.

Such interventions are likely to be costly but the initial costs may be offset by future benefits such as a reduced reliance on state benefits and better mental and physical health.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine (Ali et al., 2012).

How long can you wait for your reward?

Having stronger self-control is a sign of higher intelligence, research finds.

Faced with temptation, more intelligent people stay cooler.

In the study, those with higher intelligence waited longer for a larger reward.

For the study, 103 people were given a series of tests that involved choosing between small financial rewards today or larger ones later on.

For example, let’s say I offer you $5 right now, or $10 in a month’s time.

Choosing the larger reward later on makes sense, but immediate returns are tempting.

Psychologists call this ‘delay discounting’: the longer people have to wait for a reward, the more they discount its value.

In other words, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.

The results showed that people with higher intelligence could wait longer for their reward, so demonstrating higher self-control.

Brain scans revealed that people with higher IQ had greater activation in an area called the anterior prefrontal cortex.

This area of the brain allows people to manage complex problems and deal with competing goals.

Dr Noah Shamosh, the study’s first author, said:

“It has been known for some time that intelligence and self-control are related, but we didn’t know why.

Our study implicates the function of a specific brain structure, the anterior prefrontal cortex, which is one of the last brain structures to fully mature.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Shamosh et al., 2008).

What is considered a high IQ and why does it matter?

What is considered a high IQ?

Well, IQ stands for ‘intelligence quotient’ and an IQ test is thought to measure intelligence.

An IQ test — which largely measures someone’s innate intellectual ability — gives an indication of a person’s potential.

People with high IQs have all kinds of advantages in life: they have better educations, better jobs, earn more and even live longer.

The test is set up in such a way that an average score is 100 and it provides a comparison against other people of your age.

What is considered a high IQ?

A score over 130 signals high IQ, with 132 being the cut-off for MENSA, the high IQ society.

Scoring over 130 puts someone in the top 2 percent, meaning that 98 percent score lower.

Over this figure is what is considered a high IQ.

The majority (68 percent) of people score between 85 and 115.

A score of over 145 puts a person in the top 0.2 percent of the population.

Over this figure is what is considered a very high IQ.

IQ scores test people’s ability to recognise patterns, to use logic to solve problems and to make quick connections between ideas.

There is no theoretical upper limit to an IQ score.

Estimates put the IQs of famous physicists Albert Einstein and Steven Hawking at around 160, although their actual scores or whether they ever took a test are not known.

Advantages of high IQ

High IQ is far from a guarantee of success and may even be a barrier to a normal life.

Evidence from various studies suggests that, in terms of attractiveness, leadership and other areas, a high-ish IQ of, say 120 is beneficial but a higher IQ can create problems.

There is some evidence that having a high IQ is linked to mental illness, although some studies have linked high IQ to better mental health.

The way IQ is conceived, it is supposed to be the same throughout life.

However, IQ can be affected by health, nutrition, access to education, environment and culture.

In other words, living well, being curious, exercising and learning can all help people reach their true potential.

People’s cognitive abilities naturally decline with age, and living healthily and keeping the mind active helps to maintain IQ levels.

Four things that indicate high intelligence in a person.

Being open to experience, cooperative, happy and having strong perceptual skills are all signs that you have a high IQ, psychological research finds.

Of these, being open to experience is a particularly strong sign…

1. Open to experience

Insatiable curiosity, an active fantasy life, a sensitivity to emotions and an appreciation of art and beauty are all linked to high IQ.

These are all aspects of the major personality trait called ‘openness to experience’.

People who are open to experience are more interested in things that are complex, new and unconventional.

Being open to experience is so powerful that it is linked to intelligence when measured almost 40 years later.

Children who scored higher on IQ tests at just 11-years-old were more open to experience when they were 50-years-old, the psychologists found.

2. Cooperative

Intelligent people are better at cooperating with others.

While personality traits like being generous and conscientious have an effect on cooperation, higher IQ is the main factor that encourages people to work well together.

People with higher intelligence use more consistent strategies and consider the consequences of their actions.

That is why people with high IQs are so essential: without them society would not work.

3. Happy

Happy people have higher intelligence.

The finding goes against the popular idea that being intelligent somehow predisposes people to unhappiness.

The study looked at happiness in the best-known sense of feeling positive emotions and being satisfied with your life.

The results showed that people with the lowest IQ (70 – 99) were the least happy in comparison to those with the highest IQs (120 – 129).

4. Stronger perceptual skills

People with high IQs have stronger basic perceptual skills, research finds.

For example, they can tell which way objects are moving more quickly.

They are also better at blocking out background information to make their judgement.

Imagine a ball thrown at high speed — a more intelligent person can pick up its trajectory faster.

A higher IQ makes the brain faster at a fundamental level.

It helps underline that high IQ is about more than just solving puzzles or making the ‘right’ decision.

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