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High IQ linked to drug use

thechart.blogs.cnn.com

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Re: High IQ linked to drug use

#11

Post by greyish_water »

bambax wrote: post #9
buff-a wrote: post #7

FTA:It's not clear why people with high childhood IQs are more likely to use illegal drugs. "We suspect they may be more open to new experiences and are more sensation seeking," says White. The articles shy away from the elephant in the room which is that the UK and US gvts have a massive legal and propaganda effort to prevent drug use. Indeed the idea that only stupid people do drugs is part of this propaganda. So m…

> How about alcohol? From the article: > The lead researcher says he isn't surprised by the findings. "Previous research found for the most part people with high IQs lead a healthy life, but that they are more likely to drink to excess as adults," says James White a psychologist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. What the article doesn't explore is the fact that drugs are expensive; isn't it possible that d…

From the ScienceDaily article:"The findings held true, irrespective of anxiety/depression during adolescence, parental social class, and lifetime household income."

Re: High IQ linked to drug use

#12

Post by guard-of-terra »

I think it might be because, as Wil Shipley pointed out http://blog.wilshipley.com/2007/12/on-saying-goodbye.html (some) smart people tend to be miserable because their wits let them skip the mechanisms put in place in human mind to prevent it from feeling miserable despite actually being so.

Also http://blog.wilshipley.com/2007/03/crazy-talk.html

Re: High IQ linked to drug use

#14

Post by skore »

daemin wrote: post #6
gcanyon wrote: post #4

Here's a reasonable-seeming argument why we should expect smarter people to be more likely to use drugs: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundament...

Could it be that the smarter/brighter individuals are bored (not stimulated/challenged enough) by the average education system and so they find a release elsewhere with drugs, as something that will make the boredom less painful?

I have also heard, a number of times now, that a lot of smart people use drugs because it "makes people more interesting", which is probably code for "I numb my own brain to be able to strike a casual conversation". (My primary example would be having this as a direct quote by Christopher Hitchens. I seem to also recall that there was a House MD episode of a genius putting himself on a controlled substance to be a little more numb because he would otherwise scare away the girlfriend that he loved with his rambling mind.)

So yes, some people might be searching for a thrill because what they are supposed to do does not deliver that. But others just really want to "be normal" and drugs are a quick way to get there, strangely.

Re: High IQ linked to drug use

#16

Post by roel_v »

buff-a wrote: post #7

FTA:It's not clear why people with high childhood IQs are more likely to use illegal drugs. "We suspect they may be more open to new experiences and are more sensation seeking," says White. The articles shy away from the elephant in the room which is that the UK and US gvts have a massive legal and propaganda effort to prevent drug use. Indeed the idea that only stupid people do drugs is part of this propaganda. So m…

"Here's a question: is a high IQ linked ? How about alcohol?"

Not sure what you are getting at with this question, but according to TFA, yes it is.

(maybe I'm just dense and your point went over my head)

Re: High IQ linked to drug use

#17

Post by Alex3917 »

bambax wrote: post #9
buff-a wrote: post #7

FTA:It's not clear why people with high childhood IQs are more likely to use illegal drugs. "We suspect they may be more open to new experiences and are more sensation seeking," says White. The articles shy away from the elephant in the room which is that the UK and US gvts have a massive legal and propaganda effort to prevent drug use. Indeed the idea that only stupid people do drugs is part of this propaganda. So m…

> How about alcohol? From the article: > The lead researcher says he isn't surprised by the findings. "Previous research found for the most part people with high IQs lead a healthy life, but that they are more likely to drink to excess as adults," says James White a psychologist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. What the article doesn't explore is the fact that drugs are expensive; isn't it possible that d…

"What the article doesn't explore is the fact that drugs are expensive"

Not really. Doing enough drugs to be counted as a 'drug user' shouldn't cost more than five or ten bucks a year.

Re: High IQ linked to drug use

#18

Post by brador »

buff-a wrote: post #7

FTA:It's not clear why people with high childhood IQs are more likely to use illegal drugs. "We suspect they may be more open to new experiences and are more sensation seeking," says White. The articles shy away from the elephant in the room which is that the UK and US gvts have a massive legal and propaganda effort to prevent drug use. Indeed the idea that only stupid people do drugs is part of this propaganda. So m…

How about High IQ = more stressful employment = more recreational drug use?

I'd be interested in an addition of an "average alcohol consumption" variable to this dataset.

Re: High IQ linked to drug use

#19

Post by Jach »

shin_lao wrote: post #13

Correlation isn't causation. What's the next study? People with brown eyes do more drugs? Seriously.

I don't think anyone here is arguing that smoking pot (or in general "doing drugs") raises IQ scores... Nor do I see arguing that high IQ scores cause pot use, just that the presence of a high IQ seems to, if the study is to be believed, increase the probability of pot use. Correlations and probabilities are interesting for themselves, and can in fact be used to imply causation. http://www.amazon.com/Causality-Reasoning-Inference-Judea-Pe...
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