It appears in some studies that higher IQ and higher levels of conscientiousness are both predictors of engaging in "safety behaviors." Maybe a follow-up would be to see if lower IQ folks who score on conscientiousness measures look more like higher IQ folks in terms of mortality rates.
Childhood intelligence and longevity. What about the children of doctors ?.
Catherine M Calvin et. al. did an outstanding study on the impact of intelligence on mortality and longevity.
Their findings reminded me an observation over many years and the perception that the children of doctors and successful professionals can have a higher intelligence than average.
I propose then to investigate if these children are in fact more intelligent and if they live longer.
These children have a basic genetic normal or above, are grown in a favorable environment with good conditions for health, learning, nutrition, vaccinations, lifestyle, etc. that allow them to develop the best of their intellectual capacities.
Certainly, intelligence per se is not enough. They also need character, values, personality and emotional intelligence as well as diligence in their professional activities and practices. But if they have this favorable basis it would be a good starting point for a long and satisfactory life.
Enrique Sanchez-Delgado
Managua
Catherine M Calvin et. al. did an outstanding study on the impact of intelligence on mortality and longevity.
Their findings reminded me an observation over many years and the perception that the children of doctors and successful professionals can have a higher intelligence than average.
I propose then to investigate if these children are in fact more intelligent and if they live longer.
These children have a basic genetic normal or above, are grown in a favorable environment with good conditions for health, learning, nutrition, vaccinations, lifestyle, etc. that allow them to develop the best of their intellectual capacities.
Certainly, intelligence per se is not enough. They also need character, values, personality and emotional intelligence as well as diligence in their professional activities and practices. But if they have this favorable basis it would be a good starting point for a long and satisfactory life.
Enrique Sanchez-Delgado
Managua
1
"Knowledge is power"... including the power to make diet and lifestyle decisions that can add years to ones life.
1
Anecdotal evidence: all three kids in my family of origin have IQs substantially above the norm; all grew up poor; all have now outlived by about a decade the median age of survival for the people they grew up with (the hazards have been many); the one of us who smoked quit after 25 years; while the parents were lower middle class with college degrees, both of them were the first 4-year graduates in their families; the former smoker has no college degree but the other two completed college on scholarships for which their high test scores qualified them. One lives in deep poverty. One lives about the median in a poor area. One is solidly middle class.
1
Perhaps students who scored higher on Intelligence Tests live in more affluent areas that can afford superior education, and also afford a healthier lifestyle?
2
Correlation vs causation, again. People with tangible or non tangible family assets tend to score better on IQ tests. (Which is not the same at all as saying they are smarter since it’s far from clear that what these test measure is that ever elusive unicorn “intelligence”. People with such assets also tend to be healthier and live longer because their lives are less stressful and they are less likely to resort to cheap sources of comfort like fried food.
I’d like to see a detailed list and explanation of how they “controlled for” socioeconomic factors before I take this seriously, Even experts are far to credulous about the measurement of something called intelligence.
And for some reason science journalists are the worst of the lot. Most of them seem never to have taken a basic scientific method or statistic’s course
I’d like to see a detailed list and explanation of how they “controlled for” socioeconomic factors before I take this seriously, Even experts are far to credulous about the measurement of something called intelligence.
And for some reason science journalists are the worst of the lot. Most of them seem never to have taken a basic scientific method or statistic’s course
Intelligent children are likely to do fewer dumb things even in their teenage years.
The nature vs nurture continues. Of course the community with a vested interest in nurture does not want ot here this.
Intelligent children have intelligent parents, who teach good, healthy lifestyles. This intelligence is not limited to the wealthy who can lead unhealthy lives. Children model what they see, making it important that they have constant and consistent good role models. Parents and teachers have a huge responsibility that they don't always realize.
8
Due to the miracles of modern medicine/surgery and 911 we can now keep the less intelligent humans alive, who were injured due to their own stupidity.
Whereas not too long ago, they would've experienced a most certain death.
It's reverse Darwinisn.
Whereas not too long ago, they would've experienced a most certain death.
It's reverse Darwinisn.
6
It's nature's way.
2
Freud said middle class people pay more attention to long-term consequences than lower income people.
3
That’s because middle class people have a degree of control over their own lives that the poor often do not. When you’re not making enough to pay rent, food and your children’s medical bills every day is triage.
Economists, for all their flaws, attribute rationality to all individuals. The rational choice for a poor person does not look the same as the rational choice for someone who has significant family and personal assets. That doesn’t mean its immoral or stupid.
Economists, for all their flaws, attribute rationality to all individuals. The rational choice for a poor person does not look the same as the rational choice for someone who has significant family and personal assets. That doesn’t mean its immoral or stupid.
2
If you aren't as smart you would likely leave school and end up in more physically demanding jobs placing more wear and tear on your body or increasing the likelihood of both more accidents and more serious accidents than people in less phyisically demanding jobs....then there is exposure to environmental contaminants. The period covered by this study is when environmental regulation/exposure was just beginning to become an effective focus of legislation.
7
Seriously? An IQ test? No bias there. And Scotland is fine proxy for all the world, no doubt. You don't even report which test, which numbers, how intelligence is defined, how you "controlled" for "many" health, socioeconomic and behavioral "characteristics" whatever they were. Are you really reporting that fewer "intelligent" people are taking up smoking because of successful public health policy? Are you saying that in the past we voted more intelligently? Who knows? Why call this stuff "a scientific study"? Poor science! It's all opinion now.
10
Stephen Jay Gould is rolling his eyes at this article from wherever really good science writers go after death.
"The reasons for the link are far from clear." as are the other major factors given as a throwaway comment - lifestyle,education, deprivation and genetics . . .
It just seems longer. Smart, know-it-all kids grow up to be know-it-all adults, making time pass slower for anyone around them.
10
Funny how you equate smart with "know-it-all". and then "know-it-all" with "boring"...
It is very striking that, in a span of about twenty years "smart" and/or "educated" came to be viewed as character flaws rather than a valuable trait in an individual.
The way the movie industry now systematically portrays "erudite" characters as faintly ridiculous and unbalanced "nerdy" people tells a lot about were our "postmodern societies are heading....
"Idiocracy" here we come...
It is very striking that, in a span of about twenty years "smart" and/or "educated" came to be viewed as character flaws rather than a valuable trait in an individual.
The way the movie industry now systematically portrays "erudite" characters as faintly ridiculous and unbalanced "nerdy" people tells a lot about were our "postmodern societies are heading....
"Idiocracy" here we come...
12
Whatever you do, do not - I repeat, do not - attempt to present these findings to Middlebury college. You may be physically harmed.
14
Isn't the suicide rate higher though?
1
There is a difference between being intelligent and having common sense. I think some people can be very intelligent but not have a wick of common sense and some people who have less intelligence have more common sense. I think having common sense is far more important than intelligence in living longer.
1
I beg to differ : Common sense is simply intelligence applied to real life situation.
I agree that you can find some people who perform highly in purely abstract tasks but behave stupidly in practical matters.
Intelligence is in fact a very broad (and even vague) concept, but I would suspect that those "intelligent morons" are rare.
And that is why the study found a correlation with lower intelligence and higher incidental injury.
I agree that you can find some people who perform highly in purely abstract tasks but behave stupidly in practical matters.
Intelligence is in fact a very broad (and even vague) concept, but I would suspect that those "intelligent morons" are rare.
And that is why the study found a correlation with lower intelligence and higher incidental injury.
2
You can see this in action. Just check Youtube.
12
Recently 2 young people decided to shoot a bullet into a book while one held it, thinking the book would stop the bullet. One died as a result of this. They recorded it on video with intentions of posting it on YouTube.
2
If the study's controlling for health and behavioral characteristics was sufficiently broad and robust, the usual and obvious connection, mentioned by many commenters here, between high IQ and wise choices to improve health and avoid unnecessary risk seems to be ruled out.
In that case the explanation would seem to be more closely tied to r/K selection theory, in which more intelligent organisms of all kinds, not just people, seem to live longer, and less intelligent organisms of all kinds, not just people, seem to have shorter lifespans. This is adaptive because it's tied to fertility rates and gestation times - high IQ people have low fertility rates, later maturity, and longer gestation, but that's countered by higher parental investment and care and genes calling for longer life. Similarly, low IQ people tend to have higher fertility rates (just physically speaking, even setting aside the effects of contraception by the higher IQ), younger maturity, and shorter gestation. This helps counteract the lower parental care, shorter genetic lifespan, and higher-risk lifestyle.
In that case the explanation would seem to be more closely tied to r/K selection theory, in which more intelligent organisms of all kinds, not just people, seem to live longer, and less intelligent organisms of all kinds, not just people, seem to have shorter lifespans. This is adaptive because it's tied to fertility rates and gestation times - high IQ people have low fertility rates, later maturity, and longer gestation, but that's countered by higher parental investment and care and genes calling for longer life. Similarly, low IQ people tend to have higher fertility rates (just physically speaking, even setting aside the effects of contraception by the higher IQ), younger maturity, and shorter gestation. This helps counteract the lower parental care, shorter genetic lifespan, and higher-risk lifestyle.
5
Duhhh. Smart people generally make better decisions in life than dumb ones.
19
Sure, but how long can ya stay a kid?
3
It is hazardous to lack intelligence.
Who knew?
Who knew?
13
"Smart Kids Live Longer "?!!
My late father started first grade at age FOUR, graduated from Fieldson at the age of 16, completed an Ivy League College at 19, at which point he commenced Harvard Law School.
He was brilliant.
At age 51, he went to work and dropped dead, of a presumed heart attack. He didn't smoke, drink etc.
My late father started first grade at age FOUR, graduated from Fieldson at the age of 16, completed an Ivy League College at 19, at which point he commenced Harvard Law School.
He was brilliant.
At age 51, he went to work and dropped dead, of a presumed heart attack. He didn't smoke, drink etc.
4
He would have had sufficient intelligence to inform you that an individual anecdote does not erase overall data.
19
A single anecdote proves nothing. My own father, for example, did brilliantly on standardized tests and graduated at the top of his (low income, immigrant slum) high school – – the same one John Kasich attended, coincidentally. Unfortunately his high IQ did not prevent his alcoholism and subsequent suicide many decades ago. Like your father, my father was an exception to a general correlation.
4
they say that susceptibility to alcoholism is genetic, not a moral defect.
1
If they live longer, they are adults when they die. Not children.
2
They were born in 1936 and took intelligence tests in 1947, when they were 10-11 years old. They were deemed "smart" as children. Does it make sense now?
1
"The study, in BMJ, found no association of lower intelligence with cancers not related to smoking or with suicide, but there was a strong association with death by accidental injury." -- Does this give validity to the Darwin Awards?
17
Duh.
Maybe people with low IQs tend to take risks and do stupid things.
Maybe people with low IQs tend to take risks and do stupid things.
9
Nothing new here. Life is an intelligence test. Linda S. Gottfredson (1998).
http://www.hucama.se/uploads/1/6/5/0/16501994/g-factor_intellligence_199...
http://www.hucama.se/uploads/1/6/5/0/16501994/g-factor_intellligence_199...
6
Yep, look at the life-expectancy in Chicago!
2
Uh, ya think?
Of course there would be correlation -- our health and thus lifespan is clearly correlated with learning self-regulation, with receiving adequate stimulus from family and education, with access to good healthcare, including dental, with abundant love and encouragement. Bright (and beautiful) children anywhere will tend to receive more of all these gifts, IMO. And later, in adulthood, intelligence wins entry into spheres of benefit that are closed to the less intelligent.
Of course there would be correlation -- our health and thus lifespan is clearly correlated with learning self-regulation, with receiving adequate stimulus from family and education, with access to good healthcare, including dental, with abundant love and encouragement. Bright (and beautiful) children anywhere will tend to receive more of all these gifts, IMO. And later, in adulthood, intelligence wins entry into spheres of benefit that are closed to the less intelligent.
5
But what role did personal responsibility have?
2
Is this surprising? It is a well-known fact that wealth and health are highly correlated. Smarter people tend to earn more, are better educated, are less likely to abuse substances, more likely to live in stable relationships, etc.
Even here in Switzerland, with universal health care and a more equitable distribution of wealth, being poor has a huge impact on health.
Even here in Switzerland, with universal health care and a more equitable distribution of wealth, being poor has a huge impact on health.
13
Obviously, children with lower aptitudes probably live in riskier neighborhoods and a higher percentage may adapt riskier habits such as using controlled substances. Other factors might be malnutrition which may make them less alert to dangererous situations.
2
Smarter people make better choices. That is about it.
11
Higher intelligence means more self-awareness on how you live, how much you earn, a better standard of living, lower criminal activity, better diet, aversion to excess alcohol intake, less drug and tobacco use, and generally better choices. Smart people figure out what works and how to increase their longevity.
6
Of course, you mean "on average". I daresay we've all known some smart people along the way who were heavy smokers, or hearty drinkers, or tucked in at meal time with more gusto than discretion. Anyhow, the study controlled for a lot of "health...behavioral characteristics".
But accidental death is another case. One doesn't have to have good self discipline to size up an emergency quickly and act. Intelligence is half the ticket. [Good information, such as from good schools, is the other half of the ticket. But the kids in Scotland were going to the same schools.] Consider the story of the girl who'd read about tsunamis in school in England, Tilly Smith. Story excerpt from National Geographic: "...Then Tilly said she'd just studied this at school—she talked about tectonic plates and an earthquake under the sea. She got more and more hysterical. In the end she was screaming at us to get off the beach."
But accidental death is another case. One doesn't have to have good self discipline to size up an emergency quickly and act. Intelligence is half the ticket. [Good information, such as from good schools, is the other half of the ticket. But the kids in Scotland were going to the same schools.] Consider the story of the girl who'd read about tsunamis in school in England, Tilly Smith. Story excerpt from National Geographic: "...Then Tilly said she'd just studied this at school—she talked about tectonic plates and an earthquake under the sea. She got more and more hysterical. In the end she was screaming at us to get off the beach."
2
Maybe higher intelligence is associated with better health habits?
4
Most accidental deaths have as a contributing factor mistakes on the part of the victim. Smart kids, almost by the meaning of "smart", make fewer life-threatening mistakes, perhaps?
5