High IQ linked to drug use
thechart.blogs.cnn.com
High IQ linked to drug use
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Re: High IQ linked to drug use
#2I can't take a newsflash seriously if they don't even link to the original study.
Are the socioeconomic levels of these higher IQ individuals controlled? How exactly did they select their sample for the study? And they mentioned marijuana, cocaine, heroine in one breath, as though those are the same drug. Surely different population groups use those drugs to different extents.
Re: High IQ linked to drug use
#3I can't take a newsflash seriously if they don't even link to the original study. Are the socioeconomic levels of these higher IQ individuals controlled? How exactly did they select their sample for the study? And they mentioned marijuana, cocaine, heroine in one breath, as though those are the same drug. Surely different population groups use those drugs to different extents.
Also, "A high IQ is defined as a score between 107 and 158."
Is that standard? Isn't that about 1/2 to 4 standard deviations on IQ charts? Seems like a wide range.
Re: High IQ linked to drug use
#4Here'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...
Re: High IQ linked to drug use
#5This link seems to have much more specific data from the original study:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111114221018.ht...
EDIT: The abstract is available from the publishing journal in the following link. The full text was unfortunately not available without a subscription of some form.
http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2011/10/28/jech-2011-20025...
Re: High IQ linked to drug use
#6Here'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?
Re: High IQ linked to drug use
#7FTA: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 maybe its because a higher IQ allows one to realize that the War on Drugs is fucking irrational bullshit and magical thinking and act accordingly (i.e. to choose for oneself).
In a world where broccoli is illegal because its "evil", the headline could have been "High IQ linked to broccoli eating".
Here's a question: is a high IQ linked to smoking? How about alcohol?
Update: So alcohol is also correlated with iq too.
Re: High IQ linked to drug use
#8I know a fair amount about IQ, having studied it a bit, and I'm surprised. IQ correlates pretty strongly, with law abiding behavior, at the very least, not going to jail. High IQ people are less socially dysfunctional than average and low IQ people, eg see the table here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve
As for the sex difference between men and women of high IQ, fewer women in general do drugs, so it's easier for high IQ women to rack up a higher multiple of drug use over their average IQ female counterparts.
I looked at the Psychology Today/Kanazawa link, and it says that the relationship is insignificant in America. I.e., the relationship between childhood IQ and drug use is a British phenomenon. Maybe the intelligent are more decadent in Britain? If Kanazawa represents the data accurately, this whole IQ-drugs relationship is BS, in the American setting. Bye bye grand social theorizing.
Re: High IQ linked to drug use
#9FTA: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 drug use is correlated with revenue?
The study apparently didn't make a difference between addicts and occasional users.
IQ is also correlated with revenue (probably because that's what it actually measures: socio-economic class), and so that may be a part of the explanation, at least for "recreational" drugs.
Re: High IQ linked to drug use
#10FTA: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…
"IQ is also correlated with revenue (probably because that's what it actually measures: socio-economic class)"
False. Charles Murray compared brothers of the same household of different intelligence levels, and found significant disparities in income.
http://www.eugenics.net/papers/murray.html (article originally appeared in The Telegraph)
It's more accurate to say socioeconomic class measures IQ, rather than the other way around. To oversimplify, high IQ people are more productive, IQ at adulthood is heritable to a great extent (~80% of variation in IQ is due to genetic variation), so 1 + 1 = rich families have higher IQ children. Imagine if people were paid based on how tall they are, and replace IQ with height, and it'd be the same -> Tall parents + high heritability for height -> rich families have taller offspring. People don't recognize this with regards to IQ because they ultimately don't believe IQ is highly heritable, which it is.
Links:
IQ and productivity: http://www.onetest.com.au/awms/Upload/documents/whitepapers/...
IQ and heritability: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ (first paragraph)