Along with fewer depression symptoms, it was also linked to better sleep.
Along with fewer depression symptoms, it was also linked to better sleep.
Higher intelligence reduces the risk of mental health problems, including depression.
A higher IQ is linked to less self-reported depression symptoms, fewer sleep problems and better overall mental health.
The conclusions come from a study of 5,793 people who were followed for decades.
The results showed that those with higher IQ scores in their youth had better overall mental health when they were 50-years-old, compared to those with lower IQs.
Along with fewer depression symptoms, those with higher IQs also slept better in middle age.
The authors conclude that IQ may have a protective effect against depression in middle age:
“Higher pre-morbid intelligence was significantly associated with less depression, less sleep difficulty, and a better overall mental health status at age 50.
These results were similar to those found at age 40 and they suggest that higher intelligence in youth, in both men and women, may have a protective effect on mental health into middle age.”
However, people with higher IQs were more likely to have received a depression diagnosis by age 50.
This seems to contradict the finding that they self-reported lower symptoms of depression.
The researchers think it may be because intelligent people are more likely to recognise depression and get help for it.
They write that one possible reason is that:
“…people with higher intelligence may also have higher mental health literacy.
Those with higher intelligence might be more able to identify their symptoms of depression, which could motivate them to consult a doctor for diagnosis and advice; they might also be likely to have accurate reporting of such diagnoses in the health module.”
The study was published in the journal Intelligence (Wraw et al., 2018).
Certain common aspects of personality are often linked to higher levels of intelligence by psychologists.
Certain common aspects of personality are often linked to higher levels of intelligence by psychologists.
Dutiful, competent and self-disciplined people have a higher IQ, research finds.
This means that higher IQ is linked to people who have a strong sense of responsibility, who are self-disciplined and confident in themselves and what they can do.
On top of these three factors, psychologists have found that both being open to experience and having stable emotions tends to indicate a higher IQ.
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.
Personality and IQ tests
The conclusions come from two studies: in the first many thousands of people in 86 different countries were given personality and IQ tests.
The results showed that people who were seen by others as more competent, dutiful and self-disciplined also had higher IQs.
All three are facets of the major personality trait of conscientiousness.
The general link between being conscientious and intelligence makes sense, the study’s 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 second study included 201 university students in the UK who were given tests of personality and general knowledge questions, including:
Who wrote Anna Karenina?
Who discovered penicillin?
Which Beatle was shot in New York?
(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.
(The answers are: Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Fleming and John Lennon, respectively.)
The trait is not normally associated with intelligent people.
The trait is not normally associated with intelligent people.
People who are generous by nature have a higher IQ, research finds.
Generous people are unselfish and sometimes deny themselves so that others can have more.
Although generosity is not something people usually associate with intelligence, psychological research clearly shows a link.
Intelligent people may be more generous partly because they can afford it.
People with higher IQs generally have greater resources, or can expect to recover what they have given away later on.
The conclusions come from a study in which 96 people played games that involved either donating to others or keeping things for themselves.
The results revealed that intelligent people were more generous to others.
In contrast, those who kept more for themselves tended to be less intelligent.
The study’s authors used the results of SAT tests, which can be converted into approximate IQ scores.
They write:
“We find that subjects who perform better on the Math portion of the SAT [Scholastic Aptitude Test] are more generous in both the dictator game and the SVO [Social Value Orientation] measure.
Our results involving SAT scores […] suggest that measures of cognitive ability, which are less sensitive to the intrinsic motivation of the subject, are positively related to generosity.”
The study was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (Chen et al., 2013).
The link helps explain ‘the halo effect‘, the idea that the mind assumes that what is beautiful is good.
The link helps explain ‘the halo effect‘, the idea that the mind assumes that what is beautiful is good.
Attractive people are also likely to be more intelligent.
People who are physically attractive can have IQs up to 14 percent higher than the less attractive.
The results come from data on 17,419 children in the UK who have been followed since 1958.
Attractive male children have 13.6 more IQ points than their unattractive peers.
Meanwhile, female children have 11.4 more IQ points.
This is the difference between being of average and high intelligence.
People unconsciously assume that better looking people are more intelligent.
It is part of what psychologists call ‘the halo effect‘: the mind assumes that what is beautiful is good.
Hollywood stars demonstrate the halo effect perfectly.
Because they are often attractive and likeable we naturally assume they are also intelligent, friendly, display good judgement and so on.
As the study’s authors write:
“Individuals perceive physically attractive others to be more intelligent than physically unattractive others.
While most researchers dismiss this perception as a ‘bias’ or ‘stereotype’, we contend that individuals have this perception because beautiful people indeed are more intelligent.”
The authors warn that the finding should not be used as the basis for discrimination or prejudice:
“Our contention that beautiful people are more intelligent is purely scientific.
It is not a prescription for how to treat or judge others.”
Tall and intelligent
A second sign of higher intelligence is being taller.
The trait is associated with lower full-scale intelligence and lower verbal IQ.
The trait is associated with lower full-scale intelligence and lower verbal IQ.
Neurotic people score lower on intelligence tests, but it may not be a true reflection of neurotic people’s IQ.
The link could be down to the neurotic being nervous while taking tests, some psychologists think.
The links have been found between higher neuroticism and lower full-scale intelligence and lower verbal IQ.
Neuroticism is a personality trait that is strongly linked to anxiety, sadness, irritability and self-consciousness.
The study’s authors explain the personality trait of neuroticism:
“Neuroticism reflects a tendency to experience negative emotions, like anxiety and depression.
The six sub-facets of Neuroticism, according to Costa and McCrae (1992) are Anxiety, Anger-hostility, Depression, Self-consciousness, Impulsiveness and Vulnerability.
High scorers tend to be sensitive, emotional, worrying, moody, frequently depressed, often sleep badly and may suffer from various psychosomatic disorders.
[…]
Low scorers tend to be secure, hardy and generally relaxed even under stressful conditions.”
The conclusions come from two studies.
In the first, 646 Dutch twins were given personality and IQ tests.
The researchers found the link between higher neuroticism and lower IQ, concluding that the link was mostly explained by genetics.
The second, though, gave 213 people IQ tests and divided them into two groups based on their anxiety.
The authors explain that neurotic people got more nervous when taking the test:
“…high Neurotics are more stressed under testing conditions than low Neurotics, and that they are even more stressed when they receive information which induces further anxiety.”
The researchers were then able to statistically remove the effects of anxiety on test-takers.
Then, neurotic people did just as well on the IQ test as non-neurotic people.
The authors conclude:
“Neurotics become more anxious under testing conditions, and this anxiety affects their performance on the IQ tests.
It is therefore proposed that Neuroticism is not related to intelligence per se, but to intelligence test performance, which has been proposed in the past (Eysenck, 1971).
This suggestion implies that IQ tests may underestimate the true intelligence of Neurotic individuals.”
People with high fluid intelligence think quickly and see relationships between ideas.
People with high fluid intelligence think quickly and see relationships between ideas.
Laid back people — who can be disorganised and careless — tend to have higher IQs, one study suggests.
These traits are part of one of the five major aspects of personality called conscientiousness — or, in this case, lack of conscientiousness.
Being low on the personality trait of conscientiousness is linked to higher fluid intelligence, the researchers found.
One of the reasons may be that a quick mind can make up for what a person lacks in discipline.
As a result, those with higher IQs can afford to be more relaxed because they do not have to work so hard to achieve the same success.
Fluid intelligence is one of two types of intelligence and refers, roughly speaking to the speed at which the brain works.
As the study’s authors explain it:
“Fluid intelligence has been defined as our ‘‘on-the-spot reasoning ability, a skill not basically dependent on our experience’’.
It involves things like quick thinking, reasoning, seeing relationships between ideas, approaching new problems, and is considered to be biologically based.”
Fluid intelligence is in contrast to concrete intelligence, which refers to something like general knowledge: the things that people have learnt over their lifetime.
The study included 201 adults of all ages who were given tests of both intelligence and personality.
The results showed that while crystallised intelligence was not linked to lacking conscientiousness, fluid intelligence was.
It may be because people with higher fluid intelligence do not have to work as hard, so they become more laid back over the years.
The study’s authors explain:
“…in a competitive environment less intelligent individuals become more Conscientious in order to cope with their disadvantage, or that more intelligent individuals do not become so conscientious, as they can rely on their fluid intelligence to accomplish most tasks.”
The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Moutafi et al., 2004).
Emotional intelligence is linked to success in many areas of life.
Emotional intelligence is linked to success in many areas of life.
People with high emotional intelligence are more successful at work and across many areas of life.
There are five signs of emotional intelligence, according to one model developed by Daniel Goleman:
Self-awareness: knowing your own strengths and weakness, as well as drives and values.
Self-regulation: being able to control disruptive emotions and adapt to new circumstances.
Social skill: capable of managing relationships with other people effectively.
Empathy: taking into account other people’s feelings when making decisions.
Motivation: a drive to succeed.
Those high in emotional intelligence are aware of their emotions and good at controlling and expressing them.
They can read emotions in others well and know how to manage them to achieve desired goals.
Higher emotional intelligence leads to better relationships with others, higher psychological well-being, greater self-compassion and a more positive perception by others.
The conclusion comes from a ‘meta-analysis’ — a type of study that collects together the results of other studies.
The results showed that emotional intelligence predicted workplace performance over and above personality and IQ.
The authors write that other studies have found that emotional intelligence is…
…a predictor in important domains such as academic performance, job performance, negotiation, leadership, emotional labor, trust, work–family conflict, and stress…”
Daniel Goleman’s model is just one way of thinking about emotional intelligence.
The researchers found, though, that different models and measures all provided insights into people’s emotional intelligence.
Professor Neal Ashkanasy, who was not involved in the research, said:
“By analyzing the numerous studies of emotional intelligence that have been conducted over the last decade, the authors of this article provide an evidence-based account of emotional intelligence, where it works and where it doesn’t.
And, most importantly, which of the various versions of emotional intelligence work the best.
This will prove to be a valuable tool for academic researchers, as well as business consultants and managers.”
The study was published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior (O’Boyle et al., 2010).
Discover when IQ typically peaks, the factors influencing cognitive abilities, and how to maintain mental sharpness throughout life.
Understanding how intelligence changes over time is a fascinating and important topic.
Debunking myths: is there a universal IQ peak age?
Many people believe that intelligence follows a predictable curve, peaking at a set age for everyone.
However, recent research shows that this is a misconception.
There is no single age when IQ universally peaks for all individuals.
Instead, different aspects of intelligence peak at different stages of life.
Fluid intelligence, which refers to problem-solving and abstract thinking, typically reaches its highest level in young adulthood.
On the other hand, crystallised intelligence, which involves accumulated knowledge and skills, continues to grow well into middle age and beyond.
Individual differences also play a significant role.
Genetics, lifestyle, and educational experiences all influence when and how different cognitive abilities reach their peak.
Thus, understanding IQ as a multi-faceted concept rather than a single score tied to a specific age offers a more accurate view of cognitive development.
Understanding IQ and its components
IQ, or intelligence quotient, is a measure of cognitive abilities relative to the general population.
It encompasses a range of mental functions, from reasoning and memory to verbal and mathematical skills.
Fluid intelligence and crystallised intelligence are its two primary components.
Fluid intelligence is associated with processing new information and solving unfamiliar problems.
It relies on working memory and abstract reasoning.
This type of intelligence tends to peak earlier in life, often in the late teens or twenties.
Crystallised intelligence, in contrast, is rooted in long-term memory and accumulated experience.
It includes vocabulary, general knowledge, and expertise in familiar areas.
This form of intelligence can improve with age, often peaking in middle age or later.
Recognising these distinctions helps clarify why the concept of a single IQ peak age is overly simplistic.
Age-related cognitive development
While there is no universal age for an IQ peak, cognitive abilities do follow general trends over the lifespan.
Research shows that:
Processing speed begins to decline in the late twenties or early thirties.
Memory performance, particularly working memory, also starts to decrease around the same time.
Verbal skills and general knowledge, however, often remain stable or even improve into the fifties and sixties.
These trends demonstrate the complexity of cognitive ageing.
Each type of intelligence follows its own trajectory, shaped by both biological and environmental factors.
Factors influencing IQ changes
Several factors affect how and when IQ peaks and declines:
Genetics: Genetic makeup influences baseline intellectual abilities and potential.
