Category: Intelligence

People with high intelligence tend to have this quality.

Extravert get higher scores on IQ tests, a study finds.

People who are outgoing, talkative and energetic perform better on tests of verbal and abstract reasoning, psychologists found.

Extraverts are generally self-confident and cheerful and can also be impulsive, sensation-seekers.

The conclusions come from a study that tested the effects of background music on how people perform on IQ tests.

The study also revealed that extraverts are better at dealing with noisy conditions when carrying out intellectual tasks.

Introverts find background noise and music much more distracting.

For the study, 118 people took IQ tests, sometimes in silence and other times with background noise.

The background noise was either music or simulated office noise.

The results showed that extraverts got higher scores on the IQ tests, whether it was noisy or not.

However, everyone tended to perform better on the test in silence.

So, background noise generally made everyone’s performance worse.

The worst type of noise for performance was the simulated office noise.

Still, extraverts coped much better on the tests in noisy conditions than introverts.

The study’s authors write:

“This study found a positive correlation between extraversion and IQ, suggesting the relationship between intelligence and extraversion may be a bit more complex than it appears at first sight.

[…]

…extraversion and introversion are intimately associated with different intellectual styles and intelligence profiles.

[…]

Introverts were found to perform relatively better on verbal tests, and extraverts on performance tests.”

The study was published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology (Dobbs et al., 2011).

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).

Fluid intelligence is the ability to solve problems, apply logic and identify patterns.

Having larger pupils is linked to higher fluid intelligence, a study finds.

Fluid intelligence is the ability to solve problems, apply logic and identify patterns.

It is contrasted with crystallised intelligence, which involves using skills, knowledge and experience.

The differences are visible to the unaided eye, despite the relatively small size of the pupils.

The pupils are the black part in the centre of the eye.

They open and close in response to the amount of light falling on them.

The pupils also respond to how much work the brain is doing and other psychological factors.

The study’s authors explain:

“Starting in the 1960s it became apparent to psychologists that the size of the pupil is related to more than just the amount of light entering the eyes.

Pupil size also reflects internal mental processes.

For instance, in a simple memory span task, pupil size precisely tracks changes in memory load, dilating with each new item held in memory and constricting as each item is subsequently recalled.”

Dilated pupils have been shown to reflect when a person’s brain is overloaded with information, how interested a person is in what is being said to them, whether they are in pain and much more.

Measuring pupils

For the study, 40 people’s baseline pupil size was measured — half were in the top quartile for intelligence, the other half in the bottom quartile.

Baseline pupil size is measured when a person is sitting down, not doing too much.

The authors describe the results:

“…we have shown that large differences in baseline pupil size, even observable to the unaided eye, exist between high and low cognitive ability individuals engaged in a cognitively demanding task and cannot be explained by differences in mental effort.”

The study was published in the journal Cognitive Psychology (Tsukahara et al., 2016).

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).

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).

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).

The statement that massively reduces a person’s IQ.

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).