The Trouble with High IQ

I can second this. I have met a few Mensans who said I should join, and I think I would qualify, but I just don't feel that interested in it (though it might be a good way to get some more community in my life). I too think people who would bother to enter Mensa probably think or feel a bit differently in a way which would affect a survey like this.

Perhaps more appropriately "the trouble with Mensa members." A study consisting only of Mensa members might not generalize to all people with IQ >130. There are two things needed to get into Mensa: 1) a high test score on a qualifying test, and the important 2) some reason why it is worth it to pay $70 per year to be a member.

Reason 2) is why I think that these results might not generalize. Many people join Mensa for the narcissistic reason of being able to say that they are in Mensa. I'll bet that narcissism has a larger impact on anxiety disorders. Mensa is not representative of the general population of smart people when it comes to narcissism. Obligatory note: there are other reasons to join Mensa, such as the networking aspect of meeting other smart people.

There are tons of really smart people that have high test scores (or never bothered to take an IQ test) that are well adjusted and get by just fine in their life. They demonstrate their genius in their actions, not by their words.

Good point.

Waiting for the follow up study that a low IQ and medium-IQ are also correlated with having problems.

A possibility: People with high IQs notice patterns (with a higher fidelity) that are not noticed by people with lower IQs.

Thinking in terms of a bell-curve probabilistic distribution: If there is a baseline cultural perception (reality, narrative) shared by the majority of people, those with high IQs will notice the degenerate patterns, hypocrisies, and general systemic issues with the baseline.

One would need to live with these forces out of one's control. There are many strategies. Some involve exploiting information asymmetries, some involve creating a worldview (i.e. ethics, facts) that justifies these issues, some involve taking actions to improve the conditions of the individual & collective.

If one creates a personal worldview that is full of contradictions & unresolved paradoxes, then anxiety occurs.

My children have had their IQs tested with scores >= 150. This was a requirement for the private schools that we applied them to, it wasn't something we were particularly interested in scoring.

One thing we've learned about high IQ children is that many experience asynchronous development, meaning that some parts of their development are much faster than others, which could actually be delayed. Things like emotional immaturity, oversensitivity, etc are usual behavior traits of children with high IQs.

The private schools for gifted children are the ones that cater to those children with Social Emotional Learning (SEL). They focus on the emotional side of development as opposed to purely academic, and so far so good. I've met quite a few private-school grads from the Bay Area, and the last thing I want to raise are unhappy, anxiety-ridden children after spending tens of thousands of dollars a year. I've met quite a few adults who very much seem to be emotionally damaged from their private school experiences at places that seem to give detention for things like not tying your shoelaces, etc.

Focusing early on children's emotional needs and development early will I hope help them not be filled with anxiety, unhappiness, self-doubt, etc.