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Being generous, thoughtful, and kind is a sign of high intelligence

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Re: Being generous, thoughtful, and kind is a sign of high intelligence

#71
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did a quick investigation into the three papers linked in the article. In the first, the correlation is between either spouse having donated “$500 or more to a religious or other non-profit” so it potentially loses a lot of smaller donors, but the biggest issue is their definition of a measure of cognitive ability is probably not what you think: > cognitive ability was measured in a variety of ways (Ofstedal et al.…

> None of those are what I would consider difficult (serial 7s is starting at 100 and subtracting 7 over and over). I worked with a guy who used to brag about having an IQ of 60. Dude wasn't much smarter than a rock, but he could follow directions really well. Pretty sure he could pass these tests too.

So an IQ of 100 is the average IQ.

“Passing” the test would probably mean you’re within a standard deviation of that (or above, ofc)

Most everyone can pass an IQ test.

Re: Being generous, thoughtful, and kind is a sign of high intelligence

#72
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same is true with being manipulative though.

Yes, but being manipulative will be discovered and punished in the long term. It's not a stable strategy, as it get riskier and riskier the more you do it. So you are naturally disincentivized from being manipulative. On the other hand, being generous will be recognized and rewarded in the long term. In the short term you carry some risk if you are generous with people you don't know. This is where having good social…

Or you’re so smart that your manipulation is disguised as altruism until long after you die.

Re: Being generous, thoughtful, and kind is a sign of high intelligence

#73

Compassion is supposed to be the key reason for mankind becoming the dominant species on our planet, and with intelligence being key to survival, it would follow that compassion would be a key marker for intelligence. A lot of scientists generally fit this characterization, a classical example being Einstein. As a counter-example, a lot of people regarded as poor leaders would probably also rank low for perceived com…

Compassion towards enemies is especially interesting, it takes a lot of mental effort to go against the gut feeling.

Re: Being generous, thoughtful, and kind is a sign of high intelligence

#74
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Being X is a sign of Y” doesn’t imply “Being Y is a sign of X.”

Eh? (P(X|Y)>P(X) iff P(Y|X)>P(Y)) whenever all the relevant probabilities (P(X), P(Y), P(X and Y), etc.) are strictly positive and strictly less than 1. Now, X might be much stronger evidence for Y than Y is for X, but if Y is evidence for X, then (assuming the previously mentioned assumption) then X is evidence for Y, even if only very weak.

Yes but the comment being responded to stated “but there are Y that are not X” which was categorical.

Re: Being generous, thoughtful, and kind is a sign of high intelligence

#75
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not saying it is debatable, it is politely saying it is almost definitely wrong, but still popular.

It still seems like it could be correlated, but it shouldn't be used as a diagnostic measure or taken as a sign of something. It's more likely to be a sign of abusive parenting, but abusive parenting is also correlated with the psychopath behavior so it all ends up being correlated with each other.

Well there are is neurogenic bladder and congenital causes.

Re: Being generous, thoughtful, and kind is a sign of high intelligence

#76

What about highly intelligent psychopaths? https://www.spring.org.uk/2022/12/high-functioning-psychopat... Maybe some of those highly intelligent people are good at pretending to be generous, thoughtful, and kind because it helps achieve their goals.

So if you are _not_ someone with an antisocial personality disorder and you go to therapy like couples therapy you basically learn that you need to be kind and thoughtful even if your partner is not and compliment them and it basically rubs off on them. It's also the way you make friends etc... It's the basic psychological principle that you need to give to the world what you wish to receive. It is counterintuitive.…

And that's why a therapist will try to really make sure you are not in an abusive relationship as well.

Re: Being generous, thoughtful, and kind is a sign of high intelligence

#77
post #62
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that is why I wrote, "debatably."

This is not saying it is debatable, it is politely saying it is almost definitely wrong, but still popular.

Not proven ≠ Wrong

It's true, a direct link hasn't been proven, and I was debating even mentioning that. Obviously that specific tendency alone isn't indicative of a homicidal individual. But I would speculate that it has something to do with dysfunction/dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system.

Re: Being generous, thoughtful, and kind is a sign of high intelligence

#79
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> None of those are what I would consider difficult (serial 7s is starting at 100 and subtracting 7 over and over). I worked with a guy who used to brag about having an IQ of 60. Dude wasn't much smarter than a rock, but he could follow directions really well. Pretty sure he could pass these tests too.

So an IQ of 100 is the average IQ. “Passing” the test would probably mean you’re within a standard deviation of that (or above, ofc) Most everyone can pass an IQ test.

The lowest score you can get is like 55 or something like that.
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