Why is it bad to be too smart

If ignorance is a blessing, does that mean that a high IQ is equal to suffering? In the mass representation, this is the case - geniuses are usually presented as people suffering from fear, dissatisfaction and loneliness. Remember Virginia Woolf, Alan Turing, and Lisa Simpson - lonely stars, isolated in their brightness. According to Hemingway, "Happiness in smart people is the rarest phenomenon of all that I know."

The question seems to affect not so many people - but if you look into it, it turns out that it has complex consequences for many people. The education system is mainly aimed at improving academic knowledge. Although the limitations of the IQ system are known, it is still the main way to measure cognitive abilities, and we spend a lot of money on brain training, trying to improve these indicators. But what if searching for a genius is a useless thing?
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The first steps in the search for an answer to this question were made 100 years ago, in the era of jazz. At that time, an innovative IQ test was gaining popularity after it was justified in the recruiting centers of the First World War. In 1926, psychologist Lewis Terman decided to use it to test a group of gifted children. Having collected the cream of students from Californian schools, he selected 1,500 students with an IQ of at least 140. 80 of them had more than 170 IQ. They were called "Termites", and their life stories are still being studied.

Of course, many Termites have achieved wealth and success. For example, Jesse Oppenheimer, who wrote the classic 50th sitcom “I Love Lucy”. In those days, when he was spun on CBS, the average salary at the Termites was twice the average salary of the then white-collar workers. But not all people from this group met the expectations - many were engaged in a more modest affair, became policemen, sailors and typists. Therefore, Terman concluded that "intelligence and achievements correlate very poorly." Their distinguished mind did not guarantee their personal happiness. The number of divorces, alcoholism and suicides in their environment coincided with average levels.

Aging, Termites again argued that intelligence is not identical to the best conditions of life. At best, intellectual excellence does not affect your satisfaction with life. At worst, you will be less satisfied.

This does not mean that every person with a high IQ is a tormented genius. But, nevertheless, it is a mystery. Why are the advantages of high intelligence not justified in the long term?

Heavy burden

One of the possibilities is that knowledge of your talents becomes a burden for a person. In the 90s, the still-living Termites were interviewed about their previous lives. Instead of enjoying the success, they said that all the time they felt as if they did not live up to their youthful expectations.

This feeling of burden, mixed with the expectations of others, often oppresses gifted children. A special place is occupied by the history of the mathematical genius Sufi Yusuf. She entered Oxford at the age of 12, but dropped out of school shortly before the exams and got a job as a waitress. She then worked as a call girl, entertaining clients with her ability to quote equations during sex.


Sufiya Yusuf

Another common complaint is that smart people see better the flaws of the world around them. While ordinary people sleep and walk away from their existential fears, smart people lie awake, suffering from the shortcomings of humanity or human stupidity.

Constant excitement is one of the signs of intelligence, but it does not manifest itself exactly as the philosophers imagined. Canadian researchers interviewing students on the campus found that owners of high IQ experience more anxiety and anxiety during the day. Although the main causes of their concerns were banal, routine. Students with high IQ more often worried because of unsuccessful conversation, than because of global problems. “It’s not that their excitements were deeper,” said Alexander Penny, one of the researchers. - They just worried more often than others and on more occasions. They thought more about some kind of trouble. ”

Understanding further, Penny found out that this state correlated with verbal intelligence - that is tested by puzzles for words in IQ tests. Conversely, spatial tests reduced the risks of anxiety states. He believes that the more eloquent a person is, the more likely he will be to voice his fears and suffer because of them. But this is not necessarily a disadvantage. “Maybe they solved more problems than other people,” he says. “So it could help them learn from their mistakes.”

Blind spots of consciousness

The bitter truth is that increased intelligence is not equated with wiser decisions — in some cases everything happens the other way around. Keith Stanovic of the University of Toronto for 10 years has been creating tests to test rationality. He found that the decision-making process is highly dependent on IQ. Take at least cognitive distortion, when a person is inclined to filter information, collecting only those facts that strengthen his point of view. It would be wiser to leave assumptions and collect information impartially - but Stanovic found that smarter people do it no more often than people with average IQ.

And that is not all. Those who pass cognitive tests well are more quickly affected than others by having a “blind spot” in making decisions. They see their own shortcomings less, although they can well criticize others. And they are more likely to get caught up in the “player's mistake” - the idea that if a coin fell 10 times with an eagle, then at the 11th time the likelihood of tails increases. Both roulette players and stock market players selling stocks before they go through the peak of value came across this line.

The tendency to rely on intuition instead of rational thinking explains why so many people among the members of the Mensa intellectual club believe in paranormal phenomena, or why a person with IQ 140 is more likely to spend all the money on a credit card.

Stanovich discovers these distortions in all social strata. “People with above-average intelligence do a lot of irrational things,” he says. “Those who propagate against vaccination and spread disinformation through sites usually demonstrate a higher level of intelligence.” It turns out that smarter people are more likely to be deluded.

But if the intellect does not lead to rational thinking and the improvement of life, then what then? Igor Grosman of the Canadian University of Waterloo believes that the concept of “wisdom” should be addressed. However, his approach is quite scientific. “The concept of wisdom is a blurry concept,” he admits. “But if you look at the definition of wisdom, then many will agree that this is what allows you to make good and informed decisions.”

In the experiment, Grosman offered social dilemmas to volunteers, from decisions about military conflicts to the heartbreaking life situations described in the Dear Abby women's council column in the Washington Post. The commission of psychologists evaluated the reasoning of volunteers and their susceptibility to cognitive distortion: how justified their arguments were, whether the subjects acknowledged the limitations of their knowledge (intellectual modesty), and whether they ignored important details that did not fit into their theory.

It turned out that high scores predicted better life satisfaction, quality of relationships, and reduced anxiety and obsessive experiences - in short, everything that is missing from the classic smart people. Wise decisions often led to increased life expectancy. At the same time, Grosman discovered that IQ did not correlate with his measurements, and did not mean greater wisdom. "More intelligent people can very quickly find arguments to their judgments, but they can also be highly susceptible to cognitive distortion."

Acquired wisdom

In the future, employers may introduce testing of such indicators instead of IQ. Google has already announced the planned selection of candidates for such qualities as intellectual modesty, instead of simple intellectual skills.

Fortunately, wisdom can be developed, regardless of your IQ. “I believe that wisdom can be trained,” says Grosman. He explains that it is easier for a person to get rid of cognitive distortions by evaluating other people, not himself. In this regard, he found that a simple story about his problems in the third person (“he” or “she” instead of “I”) helps to emotionally distance himself, reduce bias and find wiser arguments.

The difficulty is in getting people to admit their weaknesses. If you have rested all your life on the laurels of your intellect, it is rather difficult to admit that it can distort your judgments. As Socrates said: the wisest of all people is the one who can admit that he knows nothing.