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Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#31

Post by dhimes »

Alex3917 wrote: post #17
warent wrote: post #3

Their entire high IQ sample comes from Mensa. So this should be restated something like "Inclination to join Mensa correlates with mental and physical disorder"

I guess I'm the control here, because I was briefly a member of ISPE. Not because I have an IQ in the 99.9+% (as far as I know), but because they couldn't figure out how to password protect their Ning group. Based on the posts though, the members didn't seem any smarter than the average person on HN and the discussions were generally less interesting.

For those like me who use duck duck go:

https://www.thethousand.com/

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#32

Post by DoreenMichele »

This isn't remotely news. Articles on this study have been posted to HN in recent months and overexcitabilities and the idea that certain disorders are "comorbidities" of high IQ was a common idea in gifted support groups, conferences et al twenty years ago. A stronger argument that there is a real link between the two is from a study showing the Ashkenazi Jews are about 2% of the population but about 10% of people awarded Nobel Prizes. This population has a high percentage of genetic disorders, a number of which are known to impact brain function. A rebuttal to the idea that this proves anything is that perhaps it is cultural.

"Genius" is defined by thinking differently. Should we be surprised if that has negative consequences, like not fitting in socially?

This is really old hat and adds nothing new whatsoever. If you are interested, there are plenty of existing resources to help you explore this topic.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#33

Post by boomboomsubban »

mynameishere wrote: post #14

So, is this "scientifiamerican" a serious publication, or what? I mean, it says that high IQ leads to various good outcomes (a fact that is obvious, well-known and easily explained) and then basically says the opposite because of a...Mensa survey. Like, uh, that's not how you do science. At all. Not at all.

You're saying that survey results that are contrary to an obvious truth isn't science? I don't think I understand your concept of science.

Moving past that, the bad outcome found and your obvious good outcomes aren't incompatible. They could be more likely to be successful and suffer from disorders.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#34

Post by ajmurmann »

chrisseaton wrote: post #28
ajmurmann wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dunbar's Number is about our cognitive ability to keep social relationships, not about how many social relationships people actually have. The later should be expected to vary widely by society, age, where you live etc. I don't understand what military unit sizes tell you about number of friends and acquaintances someone has.

Some argue that a platoon or troop is a natural number of men you can get to know well, and a company or squadron the number you can be well acquainted with. Not saying that’s true, just explaining.

That makes a lot of sense, just like Dunbar's Number does. However, at least from my personal, anecdotal experience my number of friends and acquaintances isn't currently capped or was ever capped by my cognitive capability of being well acquainted with them, but rather by not actually meeting that many people and having very little time and energy to get to know the people I meet better. And on top of that things like moving result in weakened or lost relationships.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#35

Post by dsnuh »

inputcoffee wrote: post #12

I wonder if the mood disorders are causal. For instance, the largest mood disorder was anxiety. Let me recast anxiety as "overly caring". An anxious person may work 3x as hard at a presentation or an exam. I don't want to glamorize mental disorders, but I think this might not be a coincidental connection.

I'm bipolar, on medication for it. During my manic periods I have unbridled creativity. During my lows I can't bring myself to do much of anything. It's a double edged sword, and one I would never want to willingly give up. The key is learning to recognize and manage your swings to as much of your advantage as you can.

I don't think recognition that there are blessings with every curse is glamorizing it.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#36

Post by dqpb »

People who do well on standardized tests of intelligence—IQ tests—tend to be more successful in the classroom and the workplace.

Where is everyone taking these IQ tests? In my entire life I've never come across one in the wild, just SAT, GRE, etc.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#38

Post by indubitable »

clandry94 wrote: post #2

[deleted]

> "environmental factors are are believed to play the biggest role in IQ score differences."

That is false. [1] IQ has an interesting characteristic in that at young age environmental factors play a slightly larger role than genetics in IQ but as the child reaches their late teens their IQ becomes determined primarily by genetics. This is also to say that while a child may outperform against another child at a younger age, due to environmental factors -- if this comparison, even between the same people, was done at a later age then the result would generally be primarily determined by genetics. In other words the gains (or deficits) experienced in childhood do not carry on to adulthood - as counter intuitive as that may be.

> "IQ testing was invented by a certain demographic and as you would expect works best on people that take the test which fall under that demographic."

Comparing the IQ of nations is extremely difficult and plagued by a number of possible confounding variables. So that has to be taken into consideration, but nonetheless the majority of data that is available contradicts what you're saying. IQ testing was developed in Europe/England. It tends to be Asian nations that score the highest on IQ exams. I'm not linking to any particular source here since so far as I know this is completely fundamental - any source would verify as much including the one in the post I'm responding to.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#39

Post by xor1 »

My theory is that people with the mental and physical disorders measured in this study are more likely to regularly partake in activities that develop and accentuate traits that are used to measure IQ throughout their lives in order to cope with social exclusion and loneliness, starting from an early age. This social exclusion can come in the form of peer rejection, voluntary solitary withdrawal, or a combination of both.

If you're ugly, depressed, have an anxiety disorder, a personality disorder, or anything else that precludes you from engaging with other people and participating normally in "real life", you're going to spend more time resorting to escapism. If your form of escapism is something that contributes to a marketable skill later in life, and you engage in it from a very early age, then I think that this would correlate with a higher IQ, depending on the tests administered. Things like reading (books or the internet), videogames (certain ones), music, art, math, and programming of course.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#40

Post by dsacco »

colek42 wrote: post #30
nordsieck wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming that IQs are randomly distributed across relationships. They're not. People are assortative in their associations.

The assumption that people reading HN are above average intelligence is probably accurate.

It’s easy to believe that, but if you can’t reasonably quantify it based on anything empirical, why bother?

It’s a cognitive blind spot to assume communities you’re a part of have a higher mean intelligence than the general population :)

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