Difficult to measure a complex reality such as human intelligence with the issue of intelligence or IQ. It is an important parameter to predict and estimate longevity, health, and wealth, and from the statistics concerning it we can draw very interesting information. The Following are taken from the book Intelligence: All That Matters by Stuart Ritchie, researcher in charge of intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, and illustrated with graphs and statistics on the Vox website .
- Most people have average Intelligence :
The IQ is a score obtained through standardized tests that measure short-term memory, reasoning skills, acquired knowledge, information processing speed. The partial scores are added up and compared with those of the rest of the population. The average score, measured on the basis of a Gaussian curve, is 100. Only 2.5% of the population has an IQ equal to or greater than 130 .
A fascinating fact is that if you get a high score in one of the tests, you will tend to get even in the other, although the topics treated seem very distant. Psychologists then speak of a factor of general intelligence (or g), which corresponds to the popular concept of intelligence.
- A high IQ can save Life :
At least up to a certain point. According to a study of one million Swedish men, people with the lowest IQ. The phenomenon can be explained in various ways: the smartest people; people with a high IQ are also less prone to making fatal mistakes: previous studies have shown that they run a lower risk of fatal motor vehicle accidents. And on the other hand, these same people are more prone to develop visual defects such as myopia, and need nerd glasses.
- A high IQ is related to a successful career, but not necessarily to happiness :
People with a high IQ, but it is only a correlation and, as such, imperfect. This is why it can be seen as very close to people who work little and badly. Moreover, the correlation between elevated IQ and happiness is generally positive, but I do not know statistically significant as to be guaranteed.
Finally, IQ is not related to other important personality traits (such as being extroverted, pleasing or having emotional stability). The only one to which it is related is the openness to new experiences.
- If you have been a clever child, you will be an intelligent elder :
In practice, everyone keeps what they have: even if the cognitive powers undergo a decline with advancing age, there is a strong correlation between the registered IQ at an early age (for example, at age 11, as tested in a Scottish study) and at elderly (90 years, according to the same study). Experience aside, intelligence remains fairly stable throughout life. Lydia Sebastian, a 12 year old English girl with a higher IQ than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking .
- Intelligence reaches a peak around 25 years , and then generally declines:
The golden age of the IQ lies between the middle and the end of the decade 20-30 years: at this point in life, the crystallized intelligence, ie the ability to exploit previous knowledge, reaches its peak, while the fluid, the ability to solve new situations logically, begins to decline, along with the speed of reasoning. It is therefore necessary to exploit this favorable "bubble" before it is too late.
- Half of the variance of the IQ is related to Genetics:
This is demonstrated by numerous studies carried out on twins. The curious fact, however, is that genetics seems to become more predictive of the IQ as we grow older (ie, it is less so in children). This effect could be due to the fact that, growing up, the surrounding environment is better mastered, and the qualities expressed by the genes are amplified in a certain sense.
- But intelligence does not depend only on genetics:
The other half of the variability of the IQ is in fact linked to environmental factors, such as access to education, adequate nutrition, good health. However, the role of the environment in shaping the intellectual faculties is less understood than that of the genes, because our lives are different, chaotic and irregular.
- Man is Becoming ever Smarter:
The IQ average is rising from 2-3 points per decade, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect (2) to the improvement of infant education and nutrition, and to the improvement of the abstract thought that is measured in many tests on the IQ