Why the heritability of educational achievement is about much more than just intelligence.
People with high IQ are generally healthier, but they have one or two bad habits.
People with high IQ are generally healthier, but they have one or two bad habits.
People with high IQs drink more alcohol, although they are unlikely to be heavy drinkers, research finds.
In other words, they drink more, on average, but spread it out, and are unlikely to be alcoholics.
The results fit with the fact that highly intelligent people are also more likely to use drugs.
It could be because the intelligent tend to be easily bored.
The conclusions come from a large study of the links between IQ and health habits.
Higher IQs are generally linked to healthier habits.
People with higher IQs are likely to be fitter, as they do more exercise and strength training.
Higher intelligence was also linked to better oral hygiene, consuming fewer sugary drinks and reading the nutritional information on food labels.
The study included 5,347 American men and women.
They were first surveyed in their early 20s and followed up in middle-age.
The results provide an interesting picture of the way healthy and unhealthy habits are linked to intelligence.
The intelligent were found to be more likely to skip meals and snack in between.
Drinking and smoking both have an unusual relationship because both high intelligence and low intelligence are linked to drinking more and smoking fewer cigarettes.
People of average intelligence tend to drink less or possibly be teetotal — however, they are likely to smoke more cigarettes.
The study’s authors conclude that they have…
“…found evidence of links between higher IQ and a number of more favourable health related habits (i.e. engaging in physical activity, nutritional literacy, and oral hygiene habits, as well as not smoking, binge dinking, or consuming sugary drinks),
[…]These findings, support the notion that certain health behaviours may lie on a pathway that links intelligence in early life with various health outcomes in adulthood.”
The study was published in the journal Intelligence (Wraw et al., 2018).
The personality traits that suggest you have higher intelligence.
The personality traits that suggest you have higher intelligence.
The personality traits of being open to experience and having stable emotions both indicate a higher IQ, research finds.
People who are open to experience are more interested in things that are complex, new and unconventional.
Emotional stability is linked to being better at dealing with stress and minor frustrations.
People who are emotionally stable usually find it easier to control their urges and are mostly unselfconscious.
Both stable emotions and being open to experience are linked to better general knowledge, which are two aspect of intelligence.
Psychologists call general knowledge ‘crystallised intelligence’ is one of the two main types of intelligence.
Crystallised intelligence becomes more important as people get older as acquired information and skills predict their success in life.
The other type is called ‘fluid intelligence’, and refers to abstract reasoning and the speed at which the brain works.
The study included 201 university students in the UK who were given tests of personality and general knowledge questions, including:
(See the end of the article for the answers.)
The results showed that people got more answers correct if their personalities were more emotionally stable and they were more open to experience.
Openness to experience is particularly important for general knowledge because it makes people more curious and motivates them to learn new things.
Another personality trait the researchers found was linked to greater general knowledge was introversion.
Signs of introversion include preferring to be in a quiet, relaxing environment and having a rich mental life.
Having a rich mental life likely encourages people with this personality trait to pick up more information about the world.
(The answers are: Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Fleming and John Lennon, respectively.)
The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Chamorro-Premuzic et al., 2006).
It has been linked to wise reasoning, dealing more effectively with stressful situations and feeling more confident.
It has been linked to wise reasoning, dealing more effectively with stressful situations and feeling more confident.
Talking to yourself is a sign of intelligence and self-control, research finds.
It is far from a sign of madness, as is sometimes claimed.
Whether we talk out loud or it is a silent inner voice, talking to yourself can help improve focus and boost brain power.
Talking to yourself has also been linked to wise reasoning, dealing more effectively with stressful situations and feeling more confident.
Talking to yourself has even been linked to the ability to find items more quickly.
For example, repeating “keys, keys, keys” might help you find them.
In one study of self-control, for example, people were given a set of written instructions to either read silently or out loud.
The results showed that reading the instructions out loud improved people’s control over a subsequent task.
It is thought that the benefit comes from hearing yourself.
Other studies have shown that using our inner voice to talk to ourselves can also be beneficial.
Inner talk helps to organise our thoughts and control impulsive behaviour.
Dr Alexa Tullett is co-author of a study that found people who used their inner voice were better able to exert self-control.
He said:
“We give ourselves messages all the time with the intent of controlling ourselves — whether that’s telling ourselves to keep running when we’re tired, to stop eating even though we want one more slice of cake, or to refrain from blowing up on someone in an argument.”
Dr Michael Inzlicht, study co-author, said:
“We found that people acted more impulsively when they couldn’t use their inner voice or talk themselves through the tasks.
Without being able to verbalize messages to themselves, they were not able to exercise the same amount of self control as when they could talk themselves through the process.”
The studies were published in the journals Acta Psychologica and The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (Kirkham et al., 2012; Lupyan & Swingley, 2011; Tullet & Inzlicht, 2010).
Larks tend to rise earlier while owls stay up late — each type extends the part of the day at which they feel their best.
Larks tend to rise earlier while owls stay up late — each type extends the part of the day at which they feel their best.
Morning types or ‘larks’ have superior verbal IQ, research finds.
Morning types are people who prefer to do demanding things earlier in the day, whereas evening types consider their best time to be later on.
Naturally, larks also tend to rise earlier while owls stay up late — each type extends the part of the day at which they feel their best.
The results come as a rebuff to other studies that have found the reverse, that it is owls that have the IQ advantage.
Dr Stuart Fogel, study co-author, how his study is different:
“Once you account for key factors including bedtime and age, we found the opposite to be true, that morning types tend to have superior verbal ability.
This outcome was surprising to us and signals this is much more complicated that anyone thought before.”
The study included 61 people whose ‘morningness’ or ‘eveningness’ was assessed, along with their cognitive abilities.
The results showed that people who were at their best in the morning scored higher on tests of verbal IQ.
Verbal IQ refers to being able to use language to achieve goals.
Critically, the researchers had to account for the fact that young people as a group tend to be evening types.
The fact that young people tend to be evening types may make it harder for them to get the best out of the school day, said Dr Fogel:
“A lot of school start times are not determined by our chronotypes but by parents and work-schedules, so school-aged kids pay the price of that because they are evening types forced to work on a morning type schedule.
For example, math and science classes are normally scheduled early in the day because whatever morning tendencies they have will serve them well.
But the AM is not when they are at their best due to their evening type tendencies.
Ultimately, they are disadvantaged because the type of schedule imposed on them is basically fighting against their biological clock every day.”
The study also found that people with regular daily habits tended to perform the best.
Dr Fogel said:
“Our brain really craves regularity and for us to be optimal in our own rhythms is to stick to that schedule and not be constantly trying to catch up.”
The study was published in the journal Current Research in Behavioral Sciences (Gibbings et al., 2022).
Cognitive ability is higher in this personality type.
Cognitive ability is higher in this personality type.
Laid back and unhurried people tend to have a higher IQ, psychological research finds.
Intelligent people become more laid back because they can do things quicker than others, so do not need to rush, the authors speculate.
High IQ people also have a tendency towards procrastination — perhaps because another benefit of higher intelligence is being able to start tasks later.
The study also found that higher IQs was linked to be cautious and being a perfectionist.
This may be because being a perfectionist takes longer and people with higher IQs have the patience to wait until the job is done right.
The conclusions come from a study of 722 people who were given personality and IQ tests.
The personality tests focused on conscientiousness, one of the five major traits of personality.
Different aspects of conscientiousness were examined, including being cautious, deliberate, orderly and having a tendency to procrastinate.
The results revealed a consistent link between being unhurried and having a higher IQ.
The study’s authors explain:
“The common feature of these three characteristics (procrastination, perfectionism and caution) is timing or hurriedness.
One possible interpretation of our results is that people with greater cognitive ability tend to be less hurried in their general approach to life’s activities.
This interpretation implies both positive aspects (e.g., the cautiousness involved in checking details, delaying acting, and continuing with tasks until their product is “perfect”) and negative ones (e.g., the tendency to procrastinate).”
The link between procrastination and higher IQ is down to greater abilities, the authors think:
“This suggests a slower internal pace among more intelligent people that more easily allows for interruptions or the incorporation of new information while completing a task.
This is not to imply that more intelligent people are physically slower in their tasks, as in fact they appear to be faster at most tasks.
Rather, we are suggesting that one way in which those demonstrating higher levels of cognitive ability may differ from those exhibiting lower levels of cognitive ability is a behavioral tendency to pace their work or other tasks at less than their maximum potential ability.”
The study was published in the Journal of Personality Research (Rikoon et al., 2016).
Certain personality traits and this interest are signs of high IQ.
Certain personality traits and this interest are signs of high IQ.
Musical training is a fascinating sign of high IQ, a study finds.
People with musical training tend to have IQs up to 10-15 points higher than those who do not.
The reason is probably that an interest in learning music is linked to higher intelligence, as well as certain personality traits.
Children whose openness to experience is greater are more likely to be interested in music lessons.
Typically people who are open to experience tend to have more interest in beauty, new ideas and be more curious about the world.
Higher IQ is strongly linked to the personality trait of openness to experience.
People who are conscientious are also more likely to stick at their musical training, the study found.
However, the study does not support the so-called ‘Mozart effect’, the idea that listening to certain music can make you more intelligent.
Professor Glenn Schellenberg explained:
“The prevailing bias is that music training causes improvements in intelligence.
But you can’t infer causation simply because children with music training have higher IQs than children who haven’t had music training.”
The study included 167 12-year-olds and 118 young adults who were asked about their musical training and given IQ tests.
The results showed that having a higher IQ was linked to taking music lessons, but personality predicted who stuck with it.
Professor Schellenberg said:
“The differences in personality are at least as important as cognitive variables among adults, and even more important among children in predicting who is likely to take music lessons and for how long.
Much previous research may have overestimated the effects of music training and underestimated the role of pre-existing differences between children who do and do not take music lessons.
Children who take music lessons may have relatively high levels of curiosity, motivation, persistence, concentration, selective attention, self-discipline and organization.”
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (Corrigall et al., 2013).
IQ was unexpectedly boosted by a training programme designed for a different purpose.
The results come from research on many thousands of people in 86 different countries.
The results come from research on many thousands of people in 86 different countries.
People rated by others as competent, dutiful and self-disciplined have a higher IQ, research finds.
So, higher IQ is linked to people seen as having a strong sense of responsibility, being self-disciplined and confident in their own abilities.
All three are facets of the major personality trait of conscientiousness.
The general link between being conscientious and intelligence makes sense, the authors write, since…
“…conscientiousness and cognitive ability are positive
correlates of several real life outcomes.It was proved that both variables are especially important predictors of job performance, school achievements, and health-related behavior.
Interestingly, in most studies the effects of conscientiousness and intelligence on life outcomes appear to be independent.”
The results come from research on many thousands of people in 86 different countries.
All were given personality and IQ tests.
The study was interested in the difference between how people rated their own personality and how others reported their personality.
The results showed that people who were seen by others as more competent, dutiful and self-disciplined also had higher IQs.
However, people who were seen as ‘achievement strivers’ tended to be less intelligent, although this is also a facet of being conscientious.
The picture was different, though, when people rated their own personalities.
Then, lower conscientiousness was linked to higher IQ.
The difference could be explained by the fact that people with higher IQs sometimes have to make less effort for the same result:
“Particularly, it has been suggested that less able individuals may compensate for their lower intellectual capacity by developing a high level of conscientiousness.
People with high intelligence do not need to be very conscientious as they can rely solely on their intellect to accomplish most tasks.”
The study was published in the journal Learning and Individual Differences (Zajenkowski & Stolarski,, 2015).
The brain is very sensitive in early childhood.
The brain is very sensitive in early childhood.
Exposure to maltreatment or trauma early in life is linked to lower IQ, research finds.
Being abused, physically or emotionally, neglected or witnessing domestic violence, was linked to an IQ score 7 points lower, on average.
Abuse that occurs before the age of two-years-old is particularly damaging to intellectual development.
The brain is very sensitive in this early period, neuroscience has revealed.
Trauma and adversity early in life has repeatedly been linked to changes in the structure and circuitry of the brain.
The conclusions come from a study of 206 US children enrolled in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
The study started in 1975 and tracked the children from birth.
Children and mothers were assessed and interviewed at regular intervals and the children were given IQ tests.
The study revealed that one in three children had been maltreated and/or seen their mothers subject to violence.
This happened in infancy to 5 percent of children, in the pre-school period to 13 percent and in both periods to 19 percent.
Maltreatment — including witnessing violence and being neglected — was linked to lower intelligence scores every time it was measured.
The study’s authors write:
“The results suggest that [maltreatment and witnessing domestic violence] in early childhood, particularly during the first two years, has significant and enduring effects on cognitive development, even after adjusting for [other risk factors].
Because early brain organisation frames later neurological development, changes in early development may have lifelong consequences.”
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (Enlow et al., 2012).
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