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Can You Ever Be Too Smart for Your Own Good? Comparing Linear and Nonlinear Effects of Cognitive Ability on Life Outcomes

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Abstract

Despite a long-standing expert consensus about the importance of cognitive ability for life outcomes, contrary views continue to proliferate in scholarly and popular literature. This divergence of beliefs presents an obstacle for evidence-based policymaking and decision-making in a variety of settings. One commonly held idea is that greater cognitive ability does not matter or is actually harmful beyond a certain point (sometimes stated as > 100 or 120 IQ points). We empirically tested these notions using data from four longitudinal, representative cohort studies comprising 48,558 participants in the United States and United Kingdom from 1957 to the present. We found that ability measured in youth has a positive association with most occupational, educational, health, and social outcomes later in life. Most effects were characterized by a moderate to strong linear trend or a practically null effect (mean R ² range = .002–.256). Nearly all nonlinear effects were practically insignificant in magnitude (mean incremental R ² = .001) or were not replicated across cohorts or survey waves. We found no support for any downside to higher ability and no evidence for a threshold beyond which greater scores cease to be beneficial. Thus, greater cognitive ability is generally advantageous—and virtually never detrimental.

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... Cognitive ability is an important predictor for many important life outcomes (Plomin & Von Stumm, 2018), such as school and academic performance Neisser et al., 1996;Strenze, 2007), educational attainment (M. I. Brown et al., 2021), occupational status (M. I. Brown et al., 2021;Lang & Kell, 2020;Schmidt & Hunter, 2004;Strenze, 2007), job performance (Bertua et al., 2005;Neisser et al., 1996;Schmidt & Hunter, 2004N. ...
... I. Brown et al., 2021), occupational status (M. I. Brown et al., 2021;Lang & Kell, 2020;Schmidt & Hunter, 2004;Strenze, 2007), job performance (Bertua et al., 2005;Neisser et al., 1996;Schmidt & Hunter, 2004N. Schmitt, 2014), income (M. ...
... Schmitt, 2014), income (M. I. Brown et al., 2021;Furnham & Cheng, 2017;Lang & Kell, 2020;Neisser et al., 1996), life expectancy (Batty et al., 2007;Whalley & Deary, 2001), and other psychiatric and somatic health outcomes (e.g., alcohol use, see Batty et al., 2006; and obesity, see Chandola et al., 2006). ...
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Non-verbal cognitive ability predicts multiple important life outcomes, e.g., school and job performance. It has been associated with parieto–frontal cortical anatomy in prior studies in adult and adolescent populations, while young children have received relatively little attention. We explored the associations between cortical anatomy and non-verbal cognitive ability in 165 5-year-old participants (mean scan age 5.40 years, SD 0.13; 90 males) from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort study. T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance images were processed using FreeSurfer. Non-verbal cognitive ability was measured using the Performance Intelligence Quotient (PIQ) estimated from the Block Design and Matrix Reasoning subtests from the Wechsler Preschool And Primary Scale Of Intelligence (WPPSI-III). In vertex-wise general linear models, PIQ scores associated positively with volumes in left caudal middle frontal and right pericalcarine regions, as well as surface area in left caudal middle frontal, left inferior temporal, and right lingual regions. There were no associations between PIQ and cortical thickness. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine structural correlates of non-verbal cognitive ability in a large sample of typically developing 5-year-olds. The findings are generally in line with prior findings from older age groups.
... When seeking to explain the eventual outcomes of a higher education experience, do the personal attributes and background factors students bring to college matter more than what the college is able to contribute to the development of the students through education or other institutional factors? A long line of work within the fields that study cognitive reasoning and aptitudes would suggest that student background characteristics, especially cognitive aptitude, is important to outcomes not only within college but well beyond it (e.g., Brown et al. 2021;Deary et al. 2007;Schmidt and Hunter 2004), whereas other fields, such as the those that specifically study higher education, emphasize more the role that various factors attributable to the institution might make in the performance and eventual achievement of students (e.g., Light 2001;Stinebrickner and Stinebrickner 2007). ...
... The importance of cognitive aptitudes for life outcomes has been widely replicated across the decades in numerous longitudinal samples globally (e.g., Brown et al. 2021;Deary et al. 2007). Developed cognitive aptitudes are especially important for learning in schools (Detterman 2016;Snow 1996) and for educational outcomes (e.g., Brown et al. 2021;Deary et al. 2007). ...
... The importance of cognitive aptitudes for life outcomes has been widely replicated across the decades in numerous longitudinal samples globally (e.g., Brown et al. 2021;Deary et al. 2007). Developed cognitive aptitudes are especially important for learning in schools (Detterman 2016;Snow 1996) and for educational outcomes (e.g., Brown et al. 2021;Deary et al. 2007). Though the typical approach to studying the basic science of cognitive aptitudes is not to consider its role in applied or historical contexts, sometimes it is within such contexts that a greater understanding of how and where basic science may or may not hold is obtained. ...
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When seeking to explain the eventual outcomes of a higher education experience, do the personal attributes and background factors students bring to college matter more than what the college is able to contribute to the development of the student through education or other institutional factors? Most education studies tend to simply ignore cognitive aptitudes and other student characteristics—in particular the long history of research on this topic—since the focus is on trying to assess the impact of education. Thus, the role of student characteristics has in many ways been underappreciated in even highly sophisticated quantitative education research. Conversely, educational and institutional factors are not as prominent in studies focused on cognitive aptitudes, as these fields focus first on reasoning capacity, and secondarily on other factors. We examine the variance in student outcomes due to student (e.g., cognitive aptitudes) versus institutional characteristics (e.g., teachers, schools). At the level of universities, two contemporary U.S. datasets are used to examine the proportion of variance accounted for in various university rankings and long-run salary by student cognitive characteristics and institutional factors. We find that depending upon the ways the variables are entered into regression models, the findings are somewhat different. We suggest some fruitful paths forward which might integrate the methods and findings showing that teachers and schools matter, along with the broader developmental bounds within which these effects take place.
... More broadly, higher levels of cognitive aptitude are often assumed to be negatively associated with social or emotional characteristics by researchers (Preckel et al., 2015;Stavrova & Ehlebracht, 2019) and writers in popular outlets (e.g., Fergusson, 2019;Robson, 2019). For a broader review of how higher cognitive aptitude is often assumed to be a challenge but is found to be largely positive, see Brown et al. (2021). This review includes four representative samples from the United States and United Kingdom from 1957 to the present, illustrating few difficulties related to higher aptitude and that there is not a threshold beyond which greater aptitude no longer impacted life outcomes in educational, occupational, health, and social domains (also see Martin et al., 2010;Ferriman-Robertson et al., 2010;Francis et al., 2016). ...
... (p. 27) Thus, in many ways, early findings more than a century ago with smaller, less representative samples of gifted students have been confirmed by more recent representative samples from longitudinal studies that have spanned the last 60 years (e.g., Brown et al., 2021). These findings suggest that the persistence of social-emotional and other issues of adjustment are due to contextual and societal issues This does not mean that gifted students do not encounter challenges or have psychological/social issues and sensitivities (Moon, 2009). ...
... However, the broader literature indicating the perception that gifted students tend to have social-emotional issues and are largely deprived and disadvantaged are most likely influenced by stories in the general culture or media rather than empirical research findings that suggest otherwise (e.g., Bernstein et al., 2020;Hertzog & Chung, 2015;Lubinski et al., 2014). This research suggests gifted students have more positive life outcomes across a number of factors (e.g., Brown et al., 2021;Lubinski & Benbow, 2021;Makel et al., 2016). Hollingworth (1931) argued that schools pay attention to those students who present issues, suggesting that this is why so much attention is paid to special education. ...
Article
The Marland Report included many correct observations about gifted education. Some findings, for example, were based on Project Talent, a large‐scale population representative longitudinal study of the US high school population. This paper uses the intersection of cognitive aptitudes and gifted education as a framework and synthesizes studies using prospective longitudinal data from numerous sources. Additional retrospective data on US high achievers are reviewed, as are longitudinal findings from other countries. All these sources will be used to reevaluate a selected set of claims made in the Marland Report. Specifically, we explore (a) the definition and understanding of gifted students; (b) the identification of and longitudinal research on gifted students; and (c) we briefly discuss the context of the Marland Report in the wider history of education policy and reform in the US, including how to best support talented students using information from the field of education policy.
... Another cohort study found a U-shaped relationship between intelligence and psychotic symptoms among 12-year-olds (Horwood et al., 2008). Brown et al. (2021) also reported that for the relationship between general intelligence and depression, as well as subjective well-being, a quadratic model explained additional variance over a linear one and that the correlation between the two decreased above a certain threshold. Autism spectrum disorder is more common at the extreme values of intelligence (Billeiter & Froiland, 2023) and has a complex genetic overlap with intelligence (see Crespi, 2016). ...
... However, these analyses were purely exploratory in nature. Although Brown et al. (2021) have already analyzed the data from BCS70 regarding curvilinear relationships of intelligence, they omitted several waves where mental health was measured and decided to use math ability and reading ability tests as a measure of intelligence. Those can be interpreted more as measures of educational progress than strictly intelligence. ...
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Background Despite intelligence being generally related to better mental health, individuals with extremely high levels of intelligence (also often referred to as gifted) are frequently viewed to be socially maladjusted, emotionally unstable, and eccentric. Although this view has existed for decades, the scientific data on this subject are highly inconsistent and suffer from several methodological limitations. Participants and procedure In this study, to test whether the relationship between general intelligence and general mental health is nonlinear in such a way that at extreme values of intelligence the relationship turns from positive to negative the data from eight waves of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) were used (N range from 2,870 to 7,984), with intelligence being assessed at age 10, and mental health being assessed with several different measures at ages 16, 26, 30, 34, 42, 46 and 50. Quadratic regression, as well as spline regression, which divides the dataset into intervals, creates a separate regression for each interval and then smooths out the breakpoints, was used for analyses. Results The results showed that the nonlinear models generally fit the data better than the corresponding linear models. Conclusions At high values of intelligence, individuals might begin to experience unique issues affecting their mental health, despite their mental health being at potentially the same or higher level than those with average intelligence. Intellectually gifted individuals have a large potential to have a positive impact on the functioning of the whole society. Recognizing and understanding their problems may prove to be of great importance.
... which measures social attribution using short videos of animated shapes (Heider & Simmel, 1944;Ratajska, Brown, & Chabris, 2020). Brown et al. (2019) report a full account of the initial development and validity evidence for the SST among typically-developing adult samples and more recent research has demonstrated convergent validity with effective judgment in social situations in the workplace (Brown et al., 2022) along with performance on similar animated shape tasks (Brown et al., 2021). The validity of animated shape tasks has been demonstrated in clinical and developmental research, including in identifying difficulties in social attribution among individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or schizophrenia (Burger-Caplan et al., 2016;Brown, Heck, & Chabris, 2023;Johannesen et al., 2018;Martinez et al., 2019;Wilson, 2021). ...
... Valid feedback points may include past grade point averages from secondary or post-secondary education, performance on standardized tests, and feedback they have received from peers and relatives. Many of these cues happen to be strongly correlated with one another and with performance on intelligence tests (Brown et al., 2021;Frey & Detterman, 2004). Additionally, individuals who are accurate in self-assessments of their own general intelligence tend to be more open and conscientious (Mayer, Panter, & Caruso, 2020), raising the possibility that they are more attentive or receptive to these cues. ...
... For example, test-takers from minority racial or ethnic groups are more likely to test using mobile devices and also tend to score lower on GMA tests compared to White test-takers (Bobko & Roth, 2013;Roth et al., 2017). Likewise, mobile use occurs less for highly complex or prestigious jobs, which tend to attract individuals with higher GMA (e.g., Brown et al., 2021;Sackett & Ostgaard, 1994;Warren et al., 2002;Wilk et al., 1995). As a result, operational differences between mobile and nonmobile applicants may be highly biased due to endogeneity. ...
... One variable which may act as a confound in this type of sample is educational attainment. The linkage between GMA and educational attainment has been demonstrated and replicated across several longitudinal, cohort-based studies spanning different countries and points in time (Brown et al., 2021;Deary et al., 2007). Not only do differences in GMA predict differences in educational attainment later in life, but researchers have also found that education has additive effects on subsequent ability scores (Ritchie & Tucker-Drob, 2018). ...
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Past studies have reported divergent results regarding the effect of mobile devices on general mental ability (GMA) test scores. We investigate selection bias as an explanation for this inconsistency in GMA score differences between applicants using mobile or nonmobile devices reported in observational and lab studies. We initially found that mobile test-takers scored 0.58 SD lower than nonmobile test-takers in an operational sample of 76,948 applicants across over 400 occupations. However, we found that mobile device use was more prevalent among applicants with lower educational attainment and within jobs of lower complexity. These factors, among others, could potentially confound the observed GMA score differences between devices. The device effect shrank to d = 0.25 after controlling for selection bias in device choice using propensity score weighing. As an alternative, we also used poststratification to control for selection bias and this yielded an even weaker device effect (d = 0.10). Our results indicate that the large device effects obtained in prior operational studies are possibly inflated by selection bias. Therefore, it is important to control for these demographic and occupational differences between self-selected device groups when analyzing operational data for research purposes. Propensity score weighing and poststratification appear useful for reducing the impact of selection bias in real-world, observational data. We also strongly recommend the use of random assignment to prevent selection bias when evaluating device effects for new or adapted GMA or similar ability tests. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... Specifically, higher developed cognitive aptitudes in youth were linked with better physical health at age 50 and a lower risk for many chronic health conditions (Wraw, Deary, Gale, & Der, 2015). Gifted learners, on average, also end up being psychologically well-adjusted (e.g., Bernstein, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2020;Brown, Wai, & Chabris, 2021;Kroesbergen, van Hooijdonk, Van Viersen, Middel-Lalleman, & Reijnders, 2015;Lubinski, Benbow, & Kell, 2014). And perhaps most importantly, more high aptitude students who have had their talents well developed tend to have higher educational and occupational success (e.g., the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, [SMPY]; Makel, Kell, Lubinski, Putallaz, & Benbow, 2016). ...
... And sometimes, being more able can lead to unique challenges. But, overall, having higher developed aptitudes is typically not a negative (e.g., Brown et al., 2021). Therefore, though we in the gifted community know that talented students could benefit from educational or other intellectually stimulating opportunities (e.g., Assouline et al., 2015;Plucker & Peters, 2016;Stanley, 2000;Subotnik et al., 2011;Wai et al., 2010), the broader U.S. educational community still remains focused on relative standing or rank order on the ladder of opportunity and success (Borland, 1996;Ceci & Papierno, 2005; for broader concerns about inequality and possible solutions, see; Blanchard & Rodrik, 2021). ...
Article
Considers multidisciplinary perspectives as a lens through which to view gifted education research. In the spirit of scholars who have also sought to ask field strengthening questions to help improve scientific advance, we address four questions and encourage other scholars from all disciplines to ask their own questions: 1. What if the field is much larger than we think it is? 2. What if the field is less intellectually diverse than we think it is? 3. What if the evidence supporting the efficacy of gifted programming is not as strong as we think it is? and 4. What if gifted learners may actually be okay even if they are not fully challenged? After reviewing evidence supporting (and failing to support) the core idea behind each of these questions (with a U. S. focus and for academically-gifted students in more academic domains) we conclude with ideas about continuing to ask field strengthening questions to improve research. We should explore questions and ideas and established findings from disciplines outside gifted and try to make gifted a more multidisciplinary field by being open to learning from other ways of approaching knowledge through a plurality of methods and disciplinary perspectives.
... Given that cognitive functioning has been shown to predict important life outcomes such as economic success, life satisfaction, health, and longevity (Batty et al., 2007;Brown et al., 2021;Calvin et al., 2011;Gonzalez-Mulé et al., 2017;Gottfredson & Deary, 2004;Wraw et al., 2015), the finding that the negative impact of early institutionalization on cognitive functioning is still evident some 60 years later is highly relevant for understanding the breadth of the impact of early psychosocial deprivation. Notably, children in our study solely experienced psychosocial deprivation. ...
... The predictive validity of general cognitive ability with respect to job-specific performance does not diminish even with increasing job experience (Hambrick et al., 2023;Schmidt & Hunter, 2004). The strong monotonic association between various cognitive measures and occupational, educational, health, and social outcomes in later life indicates that there is no diminishing return to intelligence (Brown et al., 2021). Net of socio-economic status (SES), cognitive ability explains a sizable difference in wealth (Marks, 2022). ...
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This study investigates whether the magnitude of the Black-White difference in average SAT scores decreases as parental education increases, consistent with the prediction of the environmental hypotheses. Based on various datasets (BPS, NPSAS:UG, ELS:02, NELS:88) quite the opposite was found. The differences magnify as parental education increases, and this pattern is consistent across datasets. These findings corroborate earlier findings about the larger Black-White IQ gap observed with higher levels of parental education. Another finding of interest is that both Asian and White students with poorly educated parents (high school only or no high school) often achieve higher SAT scores than Black students with highly educated parents (advanced degree or doctoral degree). Possible factors are discussed. The pattern of an increasing Black-White gap is still unclear.
... Intelligence research conducted for well over 100 years has produced a substantial body of evidence for the predictive utility of intelligence tests, be it in terms of predicting success in education (Brown et al. 2021;Richardson et al. 2012;Roth et al. 2015), in vocations (Ree et al. 1994;Schmidt and Hunter 2004;Viswesvaran et al. 2005), in health outcomes (Deary et al. 2021;Der et al. 2009;Gottfredson and Deary 2004), or success in life in general (Deary et al. 2005;Gottfredson 1997;Schmidt 2014). This broad spectrum of evidence represents a core element in the narrative of the success story of intelligence testing. ...
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A successful adjustment to dynamic changes in one’s environment requires contingent adaptive behaviour. Such behaviour is underpinned by cognitive flexibility, which conceptually is part of fluid intelligence. We argue, however, that conventional approaches to measuring fluid intelligence are insufficient in capturing cognitive flexibility. We address the discrepancy between conceptualisation and operationalisation by introducing two newly developed tasks that aim at capturing within-person processes of dealing with novelty. In an exploratory proof-of-concept study, the two flexibility tasks were administered to 307 university students, together with a battery of conventional measures of fluid intelligence. Participants also provided information about their Grade Point Averages obtained in high school and in their first year at university. We tested (1) whether an experimental manipulation of a requirement for cognitive inhibition resulted in systematic differences in difficulty, (2) whether these complexity differences reflect psychometrically differentiable effects, and (3) whether these newly developed flexibility tasks show incremental value in predicting success in the transition from high school to university over conventional operationalisations of fluid intelligence. Our findings support the notion that cognitive flexibility, when conceptualised and operationalised as individual differences in within-person processes of dealing with novelty, more appropriately reflects the dynamics of individuals’ behaviour when attempting to cope with changing demands.
... The authors called attention to this, but did not pursue the matter further. Many other authors have also hinted at non-linear relations, and some of them have explicitly considered alternative models (for example, Brown, Wai and Chabris (2020), Coyle, Rindermann, Hancock and Freeman, 2018;Grinin and Korotayev, 2015;Haque and Kneller, 2005;Lv, 2017). However, in the majority of cases, the non-linearity is not even noticed or the authors nonetheless restrict themselves to linear correlation. ...
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Intelligence is by far the most important human trait. This holds true at the level of individuals as well as at the level of nations. The average cognitive performance of their inhabitants is the most important determinant of the social, cultural, and economic development of nations. The article considers cognitive ability of nations from the perspective of psychometric intelligence research, international student assessment studies, and Piaget’s developmental psychology. Based on up-to-date data, the national IQ of 205 countries is estimated. Then it is shown that national IQs are closely related to a wide range of variables from different domains of life. Overall, it is demonstrated that the central findings of psychometric intelligence research hold unchanged. A special feature is the consideration of non-linear relationships. Using a specific threshold model derived from Piagetian developmental psychology, it is shown that the importance of national IQs is greater than previously known.
... Past research on cognitive ability and academic outcomes suggests a monotonic relationship between the two (Arneson et al. 2011;O'Connell 2018), and the monotonicity holds even for gifted students who are in the top 1% of cognitive ability (Robertson et al. 2010). Although monotonicity does not equate linearity, as the former indicates two variables changing in the same direction whereas the latter also requires the relationship to change at a constant rate (Arneson et al. 2011), previous findings support the notion that cognitive ability positively and continuously predicts academic performance throughout the ability continuum (Brown et al. 2021). However, some researchers have suggested the possible existence of cognitive thresholds for very difficult coursework, where if students score below a certain point on cognitive ability, they will perform poorly regardless of whether or not they generally achieve good grades in other disciplines (Hsu and Schombert 2010). ...
Article
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While the dominant finding indicates a monotonic relationship between cognitive ability and academic performance, some researchers have suggested the existence of cognitive thresholds for challenging coursework, such that a certain level of cognitive ability is required for reaching a satisfactory level of academic achievement. Given the significance of finding a threshold for understanding the relationship between cognitive ability and academic performance, and the limited studies on the topic, it is worth further investigating the possibility of cognitive thresholds. Using a multi-institutional dataset and the necessary condition analysis (NCA), we attempted to replicate previous findings of cognitive thresholds on the major GPA of mathematics and physics-majored students, as well as the course grade of organic chemistry, to examine whether high SAT math scores constitute a necessary condition for obtaining satisfactory grades in these courses. The results from the two studies do not indicate an absolute cognitive threshold point below which students are doomed to fail regardless of the amount of effort they devote into learning. However, we did find that the chance of students with a low level of quantitative ability to succeed in highly quantitative courses is very small, which qualifies for the virtually necessary condition.
... Understanding how personality (e.g., DeNeve and Cooper 1998;Steel et al. 2019) and intellectual abilities (e.g., Gottfredson 1997Gottfredson , 2004bBrown et al. 2021;Kulikowski 2021) contribute to shaping aspects of individuals' lives is essential for in the advancement of many scientific disciplines such as psychology, management and medicine. However, although personality and intelligence and their impacts on life outcomes have been a subject of extensive research and interest among scholars across different disciplines, personality and intellectual abilities are most often studied in separation. ...
Article
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Understanding how personality (e.g., DeNeve and Cooper 1998; Steel et al. 2019) and intellectual abilities (e.g., Gottfredson 1997, 2004b; Brown et al. 2021; Kulikowski 2021) contribute to shaping aspects of individuals’ lives is essential for in the advancement of many scientific disciplines such as psychology, management and medicine. However, although personality and intelligence and their impacts on life outcomes have been a subject of extensive research and interest among scholars across different disciplines, personality and intellectual abilities are most often studied in separation. When delving into the research on important life outcomes such as educational outcomes, career success, interpersonal relationships, mental health and overall well-being, it is vital to recognize that it is the joint influence of personality and intelligence that determines life outcomes (see, e.g., Deary et al. 2010; Damian et al. 2015; Cheng and Furnham 2012). Solely focusing on either intelligence or personality in isolation creates an artificial situation (Judge et al. 1999; Roberts et al. 2007), and only by considering them in tandem can we avoid oversimplifications and gain a deeper understanding of the processes that influence human lives (for more on the importance of ability–personality integration, see also Colom et al. (2019)). Therefore, this Special Issue serves a dual purpose. Firstly, we want to give a platform to papers that investigate the relationships between personality, intelligence and a wide range of life outcomes. Secondly, we aim to stimulate scholarly discourse by illuminating the often neglected and underexplored topic of the simultaneous effects of intelligence and personality in shaping individuals’ life trajectories. With this editorial, our objective is to highlight the main challenges that should be addressed to facilitate the research on the effects of intelligence and personality on life outcomes and offer a comprehensive overview of potential avenues for future exploration. We hope to inspire further research on personality and intelligence effects on important life outcomes.
... The current study supports the argument that spanking should be considered an adverse childhood experience (Aff et al., 2017). The act that spanking is associated with compromised executive unctioning, even when used only once in the prior week, holds societal implications, given that the ability to engage monitoring behaviors and detecting errors (i.e., inhibitory control) is an important predictor o uture educational, economic, societal outcomes (Brown et al., 2021). Thus, ending parental use o spanking could ease public health challenges. ...
... Moreover, GMA is associated with numerous important occupational, educational, health, and social outcomes (Brown et al., 2021), so, there are many sources for indirect range restrictions. To mention three, GMA is reflected in education (Ritchie & Tucker-Drob, 2018), education might be a proxy for cognitive ability (Berry et al., 2006), and education often is a job-selection criterion. ...
Article
I would like to present methodological, theoretical, and practical arguments which suggest that Sackett et al. (2022, 2023) calls for revisiting the role of GMA in personnel selection are premature. (...) One of the main suggestions of Sackett et al. (2022), is the rejection of Schmidt and Hunter’s (1998) conclusion about GMA role in predicting performance claiming that “Cognitive ability is no longer the stand-out predictor that it was in the prior work. Structured interviews emerged as the predictor with the highest mean validity” (Sackett et al., 2023, p.5), and they asked: “So how did this happen?” My answer is this: They decide not to use correction for range restriction and do not control for job complexity. In my opinion, contrasting Schmidt and Hunter’s (1998) metaanalytical estimate for GMA in medium complex jobs and with range restriction correction to Sackett et al. (2022) meta-analytical estimate without taking into account job complexity and with no range restrictions adjustments, is debatable as it is comparing apples and oranges.
... Two large-scale studies reported that the benefits of social interactions for well-being were nearly negligible once the quantity reached a moderate level (Kushlev et al., 2018;Ren et al., 2022). Additionally, a significant U-shaped effect was detected between positive relations with others and cognitive performance (Brown et al., 2021). Overall, the assumption of linearity still dominates studies of social relationships, and the effect of the friendship network size at the high end remains largely unexplored. ...
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Close friendships are important for mental health and cognition in late childhood. However, whether the more close friends the better, and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are unknown. Using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental study, we identified nonlinear associations between the number of close friends, mental health, cognition, and brain structure. Although few close friends were associated with poor mental health, low cognitive functions, and small areas of the social brain (e.g., the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, the anterior insula, and the temporoparietal junction), increasing the number of close friends beyond a level (around 5) was no longer associated with better mental health and larger cortical areas, and was even related to lower cognition. In children having no more than five close friends, the cortical areas related to the number of close friends revealed correlations with the density of μ-opioid receptors and the expression of OPRM1 and OPRK1 genes, and could partly mediate the association between the number of close friends, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and crystalized intelligence. Longitudinal analyses showed that both too few and too many close friends at baseline were associated with more ADHD symptoms and lower crystalized intelligence 2 y later. Additionally, we found that friendship network size was nonlinearly associated with well-being and academic performance in an independent social network dataset of middle-school students. These findings challenge the traditional idea of 'the more, the better,' and provide insights into potential brain and molecular mechanisms.
... Broadly speaking, human intelligence can be understood as a toolkit of intellectual capabilities marked by complex problem-solving behaviors and high levels of self-awareness (Tirri and Nokelainen, 2011). Correlations have been posited between higher levels of intelligence and better life outcomes (Brown and Wai, 2021). ...
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This handbook aims to synthesize key ideas from the emerging field of collective intelligence and place them more clearly in the context of public problem-solving. Groups, under certain conditions, can solve problems and accomplish complex tasks in a way that surpasses the abilities of any individual within them. How can we understand this phenomenon, and what are the conditions necessary to bring it about? The notion of collective intelligence is polysemic, informed by disciplines as diverse as conflict mediation and computer science. This poses challenges as well as opportunities: Though our notions of cognition, collaboration, and citizen engagement are enriched by studies from a diversity of fields, there is also a risk that these fields talk past one another or that crucial links go unexplored. Our intent in this handbook of collective intelligence for democracy and governance is to add clarity and coherence to the field of collective intelligence as it matures into a scientific discipline in its own right. The increased salience of the field in recent decades may be correlated with some of the key trends of our time, notably the revolution in digital technology that has enabled new modes of largescale collaboration (McNutt et al., 2016), the growing complexity and interdependence of public problems (Noveck, 2015), and a crisis of trust in public institutions that has inspired a “wave” of deliberative experiments worldwide (OECD, 2020).
... These deficits are evident as early as preschool and persist into adulthood (Arpi et al., 2019;Eves et al., 2021;Weisglas-Kuperus et al., 2009). VP born children are therefore at a significant lifelong disadvantage in both academic and everyday life, as intelligence is associated with a variety of outcomes, including academic achievement, income, life satisfaction, and mental and physical health (Brown, Wai, & Chabris, 2021). However, there are large interindividual differences in cognitive outcomes among VP born children. ...
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Background Very preterm (VP) birth is associated with a considerable risk for cognitive impairment, putting children at a disadvantage in academic and everyday life. Despite lower cognitive ability on the group level, there are large individual differences among VP born children. Contemporary theories define intelligence as a network of reciprocally connected cognitive abilities. Therefore, intelligence was studied as a network of interrelated abilities to provide insight into interindividual differences. We described and compared the network of cognitive abilities, including strength of interrelations between and the relative importance of abilities, of VP and full‐term (FT) born children and VP children with below‐average and average‐high intelligence at 5.5 years. Methods A total of 2,253 VP children from the EPIPAGE‐2 cohort and 578 FT controls who participated in the 5.5‐year‐follow‐up were eligible for inclusion. The WPPSI‐IV was used to measure verbal comprehension, visuospatial abilities, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. Psychometric network analysis was applied to analyse the data. Results Cognitive abilities were densely and positively interconnected in all networks, but the strength of connections differed between networks. The cognitive network of VP children was more strongly interconnected than that of FT children. Furthermore, VP children with below average IQ had a more strongly connected network than VP children with average‐high IQ. Contrary to our expectations, working memory had the least central role in all networks. Conclusions In line with the ability differentiation hypothesis, children with higher levels of cognitive ability had a less interconnected and more specialised cognitive structure. Composite intelligence scores may therefore mask domain‐specific deficits, particularly in children at risk for cognitive impairments (e.g., VP born children), even when general intelligence is unimpaired. In children with strongly and densely connected networks, domain‐specific deficits may have a larger overall impact, resulting in lower intelligence levels.
... Psychologists and epidemiologists have also investigated the relation between IQ, and health outcomes or mortality [20,28,29]. These studies find that intelligence, measured by some form of IQ-test(s), is associated with health outcomes [7,28,34] and mortality [6][7][8][9]21]. ...
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We investigate the association between education and disease-specific medications in old age, prescribed by medical doctors, accounting for confounders and how this association is shaped by intelligence. We use administrative data on men including prescribed medication records. To account for endogeneity of education we estimate a structural model, consisting of (i) an ordered probit for educational attainment, (ii) a Gompertz mortality model for survival up to old age, (iii) a probit model for prescribed medications in old age, (iv) a measurement system using IQ tests to identify latent intelligence. The results suggest a strong effect of education on prescribed medications for most medications, except for prescribed medication for cardiac diseases and for depression and anxiety.
... It is also important to acknowledge the inherent advantages of possessing greater intellectual abilities. One of the most widely reproduced research findings in psychology is that individuals with greater intellectual abilities, as identified by performance on cognitive ability tests, are more likely be successful in education, occupational training, and employment (e.g., Brown et al., 2021). This advantage can compound over time, where greater ability may provide access to more selective academic institutions or advanced degree programs, which can lead to greater access to more complex, prestigious, or highly paying jobs (Judge et al., 2010). ...
... [1] It is declared and proven that humans with higher intellectual and cognitive ideas lead a secure and smooth life comparatively to humans with lower intellectuals. [2] Several factors leave an impact on an individual's IQ (Intelligence quotient), the indicator of intelligence unit. For example, a cold environment increases IQ as it is tough to live in a cold environment. ...
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Human intelligence differs from person to person. Factors that are associated with intelligence were always an essential theme to discuss and so do the intelligence difference based on gender discrimination. Studying and discussion of the topic were important as it can show a clear view of which gender is worthy for which type of work. So that males and females do not face any physical or mental trouble while finishing their random or given tasks, either at the workplace or at home. In 1983, American psychologist Howard Gardner wrote a treatise titled "Frames of mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligence" and there he proposed the core eight abilities of an individual from where the term multiple intelligence was born. The eight core abilities are divided into subcategories based on task differences including visual efficiency, organ coordinations, analytical thinking etc. Since then, researchers began to study depending on the theory to find out the intelligence supremacy between male and female. In this study some recent research on multiple intelligence and their results are analyzed briefly to determine whether males or females have better intelligence than the opposite gender. Methodology of the study is divided into two steps. Each step gives an overview of an already done research on multiple intelligence theory where a number of individuals were participated upon whom several tests were given and finally both step research results are merged to reach the study conclusion.
... Recently, evidence has emerged suggesting that the relationship between intelligence and health -which has typically been described as linear across the entire intelligence spectrum (e.g., Wraw et al., 2015;Brown et al., 2021) -might in fact be curvilinear. In a community survey among members of the US-based chapter of MENSA, probably the world's largest international association of intellectually gifted persons with more than 145,000 members (MENSA International, 2022), Karpinski et al. (2018) found substantially elevated levels of asthma, allergies, attention deficit disorders (ADD/ADHD), autism spectrum disorders (ASD), autoimmune diseases, depression, and anxiety disorders compared to the general population. ...
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Introduction Higher intelligence has been associated with improved health and longevity. However, recent findings have claimed that exceptional intelligence may come at a cost. Individuals at the upmost end of the intelligence distribution are reported to be disproportionately afflicted by a set of stress-related physical and mental health conditions: so-called overexcitabilities. Few accounts have investigated this issue and no studies are available for non-US samples yet. Here, we aimed to replicate and extend previous work by examining hitherto unaddressed overexcitabilities in a European high-IQ sample. Methods We carried out a preregistered survey among members of MENSA, the world’s largest high-IQ society. In total, 615 (307 male) members from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom participated. Results and Discussion Compared to the general population, our sample exhibited considerably elevated prevalences in autism spectrum disorders (risk ratio/RR = 2.25), chronic fatigue syndrome (RR = 5.69), depression (RR = 4.38), generalized anxiety (RR = 3.82), and irritable bowel syndrome (RR = 3.76). Contrary to previous accounts, neither asthma, allergies, nor autoimmune diseases were elevated. We show that this subsample of intellectually gifted persons faces specific health challenges compared to the general population. The reasons for this remain speculative, as we find little evidence for previously proposed immunological explanations. However, it is possible that the effects are caused by sample selectiveness (i.e., membership in a high-IQ society) rather than high IQ itself.
... A general definition [23] is given in Britannica: "Human intelligence is a mental quality that consists of the abilities to learn from experience, adapt to new situations, understand and handle abstract concepts, and use knowledge to manipulate one's environment." Brown and Wai [24] outlined that the intelligence level is generally correlated with increased success in life. It is interesting to note that even if human intelligence is not easily understandable, it can be measured. ...
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Measuring the machine intelligence quotient (MIQ) of intelligent agent-based systems (IABSs) is very important based on the increasing number of intelligent systems applied to real-life problem solving. The most important property of an intelligence metric must be its universality. Developing universal intelligence metrics is difficult based on the very large diversity of intelligent systems. A feasible approach for ensuring the universality of measuring machine intelligence consists in using black-box-based methods able to measure the central intelligence tendency in problem solving. This paper represents a guide for choosing the most appropriate black-box-based intelligence metric for measuring the intelligence of developed IABSs, classification of IABSs in intelligence classes and detection of the IABSs with statistical low and high outlier intelligence. In research where the performance of heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms is studied, the performance indicator is frequently calculated as the mean or the median of experimental evaluation results. There is no consensus agreement regarding which of them is more appropriate. In some cases, both of them are reported. The manner in which it should be decided which of them to be used is scientifically grounded in this paper.
... Stanley identified mathematically and verbally precocious youth to follow their progress over subsequent longitudinal studies (Lubinski & Benbow 2006). While these studies have generally supported the rather universally supported notion that high ability (e.g., intelligence) leads to favorable life outcomes, including higher educational, occupational, and health outcomes (Brown et al 2021), these researchers have also delved into the arena of creative outcomes (Wai et al 2005), which warrants more detailed scrutiny and comment. ...
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Psychologist J. P. Guildford issued a challenge to study creativity nearly 70 years ago. How well have we done and what might the next steps be in our endeavors to understand creativity? The field of creativity research has examined the internal thinking process of creativity, largely through measures of divergent thinking and remote associates. We have tracked the creative successes of people assumed to be of high talent and high intelligence. And, we have evaluated creative products. More recently, we have correlated various cognitive and personality measures, purported to be linked to creativity, with brain structure and function. In spite of this flurry of activity, there are some problems. These assessments do not provide specific or significant predictive validity of creative achievement. Similarly, while Guilford desired to separate creativity from the purview of intelligence in his challenge, these constructs appear to be as entangled today as they were in the 1950ʹs. When viewing all predictive variables of creative achievement across person, process, and product, we found that the personality trait of openness to experience – provides the best combination of specificity and predictive power. Finally, we join others in calling for more study of imagination as a mental tool that individuals at all skill levels use to predict outcomes, visualize scenarios, and engage in counterfactual thinking – in service of creative achievement.
... The higher correlation inGanzach (2014) may be because there was no adjustment for age. Families with older children tend to have higher incomes.measures.Brown et al. (2021Brown et al. ( , p. 1348 reported R square values for regressions on a constructed AFQT measure which are equivalent to correlations of 0.50 for educational attainment, 0.39 for occupational attainment and 0.25 for annual logged income. ...
Article
Few issues in the social sciences are as controversial as the role of cognitive ability for educational and subsequent socioeconomic attainments. There are a variety of arguments raised to dismiss, discount or discredit the role of cognitive ability: socioeconomic background is the dominant influence; if cognitive ability appears important, that is only because important predictors have been omitted; the relative importance of socioeconomic background and cognitive ability cannot be ascertained; and cognitive ability is simply a function of socioeconomic background and, for post-education socioeconomic attainments, education. This study analyses the effects of cognitive ability and socioeconomic background on a chronological sequence of social stratification outcomes - school grades, SAT and ACT scores, educational and occupational attainment, income and wealth - in data from the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. The coefficients for cognitive ability decline marginally with the addition of socioeconomic background measures, including family-of-origin income averaged over several years, and wealth. In contrast, socioeconomic background coefficients decline substantially with the addition of cognitive ability. Net of educational attainment, cognitive ability has sizable effects on occupational attainment and income. Net of socioeconomic background, education and occupation, a one-standard-deviation difference in ability corresponds to a sizable 43% difference in positive wealth at around age 35 in the older cohort and a 25% increase in the younger cohort. Therefore, contrary to dominant narratives, cognitive ability is important to a range of social stratification outcomes, and its effects cannot be attributed to socioeconomic background or educational attainment.
... Researchers and practitioners in education also seek similar nuance. Whereas g predicts many general life outcomes (Brown, Wai, & Chabris, 2021), including the level of expertise that individuals may develop, it is not as effective in predicting which of many life outcomes are likely (especially if they are similar in complexity) or in aligning individuals to the most advantageous training or career pathway at a particular developmental time point (Ackerman, 2018;Schneider & Newman, 2015). Furthermore, prediction from g is far from perfect and we can observe differences in outcomes, including among gifted students, that may be explained further if we had more detailed information about the wide array of students' specific aptitudes. ...
Article
This paper explores the way in which the literatures on gifted education and specific cognitive aptitudes can be better integrated and inform one another to advance scientific knowledge. We first briefly review evidence accumulated to date on specific cognitive aptitudes and gifted samples and then explore what might be usefully investigated in the future. We consider measurement issues, value for applied uses of tests, specific cognitive aptitudes beyond what has been focused on to date and conclude with a discussion surrounding cross-field integration using the totality of evidence and consideration of policy. Continued research and better integration of research evidence across domains and translation to policy and practice might correspondingly improve basic scientific understanding of cognitive aptitudes.
... The lines are separated by the so-called break point, which is algorithmically set to balance statistical power between the two lines in order to increase the detectability of a significant slope in the statistically weaker one (allegorically, it has been referred to as the Robin Hood algorithm). On the basis of simulations, Simonsohn concluded that the two-lines test achieves a lower false-positive rate than other existing methods testing for (inverted) U-shaped patterns (for an application of the two-lines test, see, e.g., Brown et al., 2021). ...
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Several studies have suggested that the rank-order stability of personality increases until midlife and declines later in old age. However, this inverted U-shaped pattern has not consistently emerged in previous research; in particular, a recent investigation implementing several methodological advances failed to support it. To resolve the matter, we analyzed data from two representative panel studies and investigated how certain methodological decisions affect conclusions regarding the age trajectories of stability. The data came from Australia (N = 15,465; Study 1) and Germany (N = 21,777; Study 2), and each study included four waves of personality assessment. We investigated the life span development of the rank-order stability of the Big Five for 4-, 8-, and 12-year intervals. Whereas Study 1 provided strong evidence for an inverted U-shape with rank-order stability declining past age 50, Study 2 provided more mixed results that nonetheless generally supported the inverted U-shape. This developmental trend held for single personality traits as well as for the overall pattern across traits; and it held for all three retest intervals—both descriptively and in formal tests. Additionally, we found evidence that health-related changes accounted for the decline in rank-order stability in older age. This suggests that if analyses are implicitly conditioned on health (e.g., by excluding participants with missing data on later waves), the decline in stability in old age will be underestimated or even missed. Our results provide further evidence for the inverted U-shaped age pattern in personality stability development but also extend knowledge about the underlying processes.
... From a statistical perspective, the positive correlations observed among broad cognitive abilities can be explained by a unitary, higherorder latent factor, known as g (Fig. 1). The g-factor represents general intelligence, and it is one of the best variables in the differential psychologist's toolkit for predicting real-world outcomes such as academic achievement, job performance, occupational attainment, income, and, to a lesser degree, relationship satisfaction, health behaviors, and mortality (e.g., Brown, Wai, & Chabris, 2021). Obviously, g is important, whatever it is. ...
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Process overlap theory provides a contemporary explanation for the positive correlations observed among cognitive ability measures, a phenomenon which intelligence researchers refer to as the positive manifold. According to process overlap theory, cognitive tasks tap domain-general executive processes as well as domain-specific processes, and correlations between measures reflect the degree of overlap in the cognitive processes that are engaged when performing the tasks. In this article, we discuss points of agreement and disagreement between the executive attention framework and process overlap theory, with a focus on attention control: the domain-general ability to maintain focus on task-relevant information and disengage from irrelevant and no-longer relevant information. After describing the steps our lab has taken to improve the measurement of attention control, we review evidence suggesting that attention control can explain many of the positive correlations between broad cognitive abilities, such as fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and sensory discrimination ability. Furthermore, when these latent variables are modeled under a higher-order g factor, attention control has the highest loading on g, indicating a strong relationship between attention control and domain-general cognitive ability. In closing, we reflect on the challenge of directly measuring cognitive processes and provide suggestions for future research.
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A growing understanding of the nature of brain function has led to increased interest in interpreting the properties of large-scale brain networks. Methodological advances in network neuroscience provide means to decompose these networks into smaller functional communities and measure how they reconfigure over time as an index of their dynamic and flexible properties. Recent evidence has identified associations between flexibility and a variety of traits pertaining to complex cognition including creativity and working memory. The present study used measures of dynamic resting-state functional connectivity in data from the Human Connectome Project (n = 994) to test associations with Openness/Intellect, general intelligence, and psychoticism, three traits that involve flexible cognition. Using a machine-learning cross-validation approach, we identified reliable associations of intelligence with cohesive flexibility of parcels in large communities across the cortex, of psychoticism with disjoint flexibility, and of Openness/Intellect with overall flexibility among parcels in smaller communities. These findings are reasonably consistent with previous theories of the neural correlates of these traits and help to expand on previous associations of behavior with dynamic functional connectivity, in the context of broad personality dimensions.
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Introduction: This study aims to use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in conjunction with brain graph techniques to define brain structural connectivity and investigate its association with personal income (PI) in individuals of various ages and intelligence quotients (IQ). Methods: MRI examinations were performed on 55 male subjects (mean age: 40.1 ± 9.4 years). Graph data and metrics were generated, and DTI images were analyzed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). All subjects underwent the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale for a reliable estimation of the full-scale IQ (FSIQ), which includes verbal comprehension index, perceptual reasoning index, working memory index, and processing speed index. The performance score was defined as the monthly PI normalized by the age of the subject. Results: The analysis of global graph metrics showed that modularity correlated positively with performance score (p = 0.003) and negatively with FSIQ (p = 0.04) and processing speed index (p = 0.005). No significant correlations were found between IQ indices and performance scores. Regional analysis of graph metrics showed modularity differences between right and left networks in sub-cortical (p = 0.001) and frontal (p = 0.044) networks. TBSS analysis showed greater axial and mean diffusivities in the high-performance group in correlation with their modular brain organization. Conclusion: This study showed that PI performance is strongly correlated with a modular organization of brain structural connectivity, which implies short and rapid networks, providing automatic and unconscious brain processing. Additionally, the lack of correlation between performance and IQ suggests a reduced role of academic reasoning skills in performance to the advantage of high uncertainty decision-making networks.
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The need for understanding and supporting gifted children is beginning to be widely recognized in Japan. The purpose of this paper is to promote an accurate understanding of giftedness and to develop research and practice in educational psychology based on this understanding. First, the definition and characteristics of gifted children are reviewed. Second, an overview of related research in Japan is presented: Third, four points of view that could be effectively incorporated into the study of giftedness are listed. (1) Clarify who needs support, since not all gifted children need special support. (2) Separate whether a child is gifted or not from whether or not he/she needs special support and programs. (3) Separate potential talent from whether or not it can be demonstrated. (4) Identify the elements of gifted education that exist in the current Japanese educational system and practices.
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Non-verbal cognitive ability predicts multiple important life outcomes, for example, school and job performance. It has been associated with parieto-frontal cortical anatomy in prior studies in adult and adolescent populations, while young children have received relatively little attention. We explored the associations between cortical anatomy and non-verbal cognitive ability in 165 5-year-old participants (mean scan age 5.40 years, SD 0.13; 90 males) from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort study. T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance images were processed using FreeSurfer. Non-verbal cognitive ability was measured using the Performance Intelligence Quotient (PIQ) estimated from the Block Design and Matrix Reasoning subtests from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-III). In vertex-wise general linear models, PIQ scores associated positively with volumes in the left caudal middle frontal and right pericalcarine regions, as well as surface area in left the caudal middle frontal, left inferior temporal, and right lingual regions. There were no associations between PIQ and cortical thickness. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine structural correlates of non-verbal cognitive ability in a large sample of typically developing 5-year-olds. The findings are generally in line with prior findings from older age groups, with the important addition of the positive association between volume / surface area in the right medial occipital region and non-verbal cognitive ability. This finding adds to the literature by discovering a new brain region that should be considered in future studies exploring the role of cortical structure for cognitive development in young children.
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This paper presents one of the first marketing applications of molecular genetics. We report evidence that salespeople’s genetic variants linked to educational attainment predict sales performance. Both genetics and selling effort contribute to sales performance, whereas genetics contribute more than personality traits. We further show that adaptive learning, as captured in salespeople’s customer orientation and opportunity recognition skills, may explain the gene-sales relationship. We discuss the implications of these findings for sales management and the value of genetic research for the marketing field. This paper was accepted by Matthew Shum, marketing. Funding: S. Gong acknowledges financial support from the NSFC [Grant 71972040] and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2022NTSS43]. Q. Li acknowledges financial support from the NSFC [Grant 72072014] and Young Talent Program of Beijing Foreign Studies University. S. Su acknowledges financial support from the NSFC [Grant 71872016]. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4879 .
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Close friendships are important for mental health and cognition in late childhood. However, whether the more close friends the better, and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are unknown. Using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental study, we identified nonlinear associations between the number of close friends, mental health, cognition, and brain structure. Although few close friends were associated with poor mental health, low cognitive functions, and small areas of the social brain (e.g., the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, the anterior insula, and the temporoparietal junction), increasing the number of close friends beyond a level (around 5) was no longer associated with better mental health and larger cortical areas, and was even related to lower cognition. In children having no more than five close friends, the cortical areas related to the number of close friends revealed correlations with the density of μ-opioid receptors and the expression of OPRM1 and OPRK1 genes, and could partly mediate the association between the number of close friends, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and crystalized intelligence. Longitudinal analyses showed that both too few and too many close friends at baseline were associated with more ADHD symptoms and lower crystalized intelligence 2 y later. Additionally, we found that friendship network size was nonlinearly associated with well-being and academic performance in an independent social network dataset of middle-school students. These findings challenge the traditional idea of ‘the more, the better,’ and provide insights into potential brain and molecular mechanisms.
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Close friendships are important for mental health and cognition in late childhood. However, whether the more close friends the better, and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are unknown. Using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental study, we identified nonlinear associations between the number of close friends, mental health, cognition, and brain structure. Although few close friends were associated with poor mental health, low cognitive functions, and small areas of the social brain (e.g., the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, the anterior insula, and the temporoparietal junction), increasing the number of close friends beyond a level (around 5) was no longer associated with better mental health and larger cortical areas, and was even related to lower cognition. In children having no more than five close friends, the cortical areas related to the number of close friends revealed correlations with the density of μ-opioid receptors and the expression of OPRM1 and OPRK1 genes, and could partly mediate the association between the number of close friends, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and crystalized intelligence. Longitudinal analyses showed that both too few and too many close friends at baseline were associated with more ADHD symptoms and lower crystalized intelligence 2 y later. Additionally, we found that friendship network size was nonlinearly associated with well-being and academic performance in an independent social network dataset of middle-school students. These findings challenge the traditional idea of ‘the more, the better,’ and provide insights into potential brain and molecular mechanisms.
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Close friendships are important for mental health and cognition in late childhood. However, whether the more close friends the better, and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are unknown. Using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental study, we identified nonlinear associations between the number of close friends, mental health, cognition, and brain structure. Although few close friends were associated with poor mental health, low cognitive functions, and small areas of the social brain (e.g., the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, the anterior insula, and the temporoparietal junction), increasing the number of close friends beyond a level (around 5) was no longer associated with better mental health and larger cortical areas, and was even related to lower cognition. In children having no more than five close friends, the cortical areas related to the number of close friends revealed correlations with the density of μ-opioid receptors and the expression of OPRM1 and OPRK1 genes, and could partly mediate the association between the number of close friends, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and crystalized intelligence. Longitudinal analyses showed that both too few and too many close friends at baseline were associated with more ADHD symptoms and lower crystalized intelligence 2 y later. Additionally, we found that friendship network size was nonlinearly associated with well-being and academic performance in an independent social network dataset of middle-school students. These findings challenge the traditional idea of ‘the more, the better,’ and provide insights into potential brain and molecular mechanisms.
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Background Studies reporting that highly intelligent individuals have more mental health disorders often have sampling bias, no or inadequate control groups, or insufficient sample size. We addressed these caveats by examining the difference in the prevalence of mental health disorders between individuals with high and average general intelligence ( g -factor) in the UK Biobank. Methods Participants with g -factor scores standardized relative to the same-age UK population, were divided into two groups: a high g -factor group ( g -factor 2 SD above the UK mean; N = 16,137) and an average g -factor group ( g -factor within 2 SD of the UK mean; N = 236,273). Using self-report questionnaires and medical diagnoses, we examined group differences in the prevalence of 32 phenotypes, including mental health disorders, trauma, allergies, and other traits. Results High and average g -factor groups differed across 15/32 phenotypes and did not depend on sex and/or age. Individuals with high g -factors had less general anxiety (odds ratio [OR] = 0.69, 95% CI [0.64;0.74]) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; OR = 0.67, 95 %CI [0.61;0.74]), were less neurotic (β = −0.12, 95% CI [−0.15;−0.10]), less socially isolated (OR = 0.85, 95% CI [0.80;0.90]), and were less likely to have experienced childhood stressors and abuse, adulthood stressors, or catastrophic trauma (OR = 0.69–0.90). However, they generally had more allergies (e.g., eczema; OR = 1.13–1.33). Conclusions The present study provides robust evidence that highly intelligent individuals do not have more mental health disorders than the average population. High intelligence even appears as a protective factor for general anxiety and PTSD.
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Close friendships are important for mental health and cognition in late childhood. However, whether the more close friends the better, and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are unknown. Using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental study, we identified nonlinear associations between the number of close friends, mental health, cognition, and brain structure. Although few close friends were associated with poor mental health, low cognitive functions and small areas of the social brain (e.g., the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, the anterior insula and the temporo-parietal junction), increasing the number of close friends beyond a level (around 5) was no longer associated with better mental health and larger cortical areas, and was even related to lower cognition. In children having no more than 5 close friends, the cortical areas related to the number of close friends revealed correlations with the density of u-opioid receptors and the expression of OPRM1 and OPRK1, and could partly mediate the association between the number of close friends, ADHD symptoms, and crystalized intelligence. Longitudinal analyses showed that both too few and too many close friends at baseline were associated with more ADHD symptoms and lower crystalized intelligence 2 years later. Additionally, we found friendship network size was nonlinearly associated with well-being and academic performance in an independent social network dataset of middle school students. These findings challenge the traditional idea of "the more, the better", and provide insights into potential brain and molecular mechanisms.
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Nonlinear intelligence focuses on the multi-facet structure of the human intelligence, which includes but not limited to skills, experiences, qualifications, and practices. In this study, nonlinear intelligence was studied in the vocational YunNan, college of business management and vocational institutions in China. Data was collected through structured questionnaire adopted from previous studies and was incorporated in the current studies with the consultations of experts and academicians. SPSS was used to assess the means scores of the constructs under investigations. The results indicate that linear style of intelligence management is found in the teaching-learning processes in the vocational institutions. The results are also correlated with the contextual practices and experiences, that vocational graduates lack risk-taking behaviors. The study further recommends that the universities and the vocational colleges should change their teaching-learning styles to covert the learning and working mechanism to sort the real-world problems in a more real way.
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The paper considers the training technology of highly professional specialists that is congruent to the condition and peculiarities of the innovative development of economic sectors. Authors offer a new method of organizing a human-centered educational process, where actual curricula are created directly during the academic semester using the method of additive technologies in education. In equivalent to 3D printing of multicomponent biological or composite products using several delivery systems for various components, we propose to design a learning process for study groups from various sources. Involving specialists in the project learning process from anywhere in the world where the Internet is available allows to ensure the process of obtaining knowledge simultaneously with the process of generating new knowledge, new technical and technological solutions, both according to any pre-selected algorithm, and with variations in the course of training. A special environment of human interaction is created, where the educational process for all participants is transformed into intellectual process of innovations generation. Authors implemented the method of SKW-matrix - a structural code of imagination, which allows to form and capitalize the results of intellectual activity obtained in the process of training. The blockchain technology ensures that the contribution of each of the participants in the formation of the generated intellectual property object is considered with the determination of the coefficient of participation in the created capital. The proposed methodology for specialists training transfers innovation into an exponential growth of the creative economy.KeywordsHuman-centerednessSustainable developmentIntellectual activityStructural code of imaginationSkw-matrixConvergent modelSidechain
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To date, no international consensus exists on the definition of giftedness. There is a great diversity in conceptualising giftedness not only between, but also within countries. Inevitably, this has a major influence on how countries design and implement gifted education programmes. This paper starts with an overview of the extended academic literature on the definition and identification of giftedness. It then describes OECD countries’ policy initiatives to respond to the needs of gifted students and to foster their inclusion in education systems. Following the Strength through Diversity project’s framework, the analysis focuses on the areas of governance, resourcing, capacity building, school-level interventions, and monitoring and evaluation of gifted programmes. The paper finds that a greater emphasis is placed on the governance of gifted education, often related to broader equity and inclusion concerns. Nonetheless, further research and evaluations are needed to understand what policies and practices can best benefit gifted learners while ensuring positive educational and well-being outcomes for all students.
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This study examined whether associations between cognitive ability and mental health (depression, anxiety, and psychological wellbeing) could be accounted for by different categories of risk factors: socioeconomic status, engagement in pleasant activities, coping/appraisal, social relationships, biological risk factors (inflammation, cortisol, heart-rate variability), and reaction time. Participants were from the Midlife in the United States study (n = 1744; mean age = 54, range 25 to 84). Adjusting for social relationships, biological risk factors, or reaction time had almost no influence on the association between cognitive ability and mental health. Adjusting for engagement in pleasant activities attenuated the associations with depression and anxiety by one-fourth; adjusting for coping/appraisal by one-third; and adjusting for socioeconomic status by one-fifth. These attenuations were larger for the associations with positive affect and life satisfaction. These findings suggest that the association between cognitive ability and mental health may be partly explained by cognitive-behavioral mechanisms and the protective influence of socioeconomic status.
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To understand why education as a field has not incorporated intelligence, we must consider the field’s history and culture. Accordingly, in this cross-disciplinary collaboration between a political scientist who studies institutions and a psychologist who studies intelligence, we outline how the roots of contemporary American Educational Leadership as a field determine its contemporary avoidance of the concept of intelligence. Rooted in early 20th century progressivism and scientific management, Educational Leadership theory envisions professionally run schools as “Taylorist” factories with teaching and leadership largely standardized, prioritizing compliance over cognitive ability among educators. Further, the roots of modern education theory do not see the intelligence of students as largely malleable. Hence, prioritizing intelligence is viewed as elitist. For more than a century, these assumptions have impacted recruitment into education as a profession. We conclude with ideas about how to bring intelligence into mainstream schooling, within the existing K-12 education institutional context. We believe that better integration of intelligence and broader individual differences research in education policy and practice would lead to more rapid advances to finding evidence based solutions to help children.
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The debate about false positives in psychological research has led to a demand for higher statistical power. To meet this demand, researchers need to collect data from larger samples—which is important to increase replicability, but can be costly in both time and money (i.e., remuneration of participants). Given that researchers might need to compensate for these higher costs, we hypothesized that larger sample sizes might have been accompanied by more frequent use of less costly research methods (i.e., online data collection and self-report measures). To test this idea, we analyzed social psychology studies published in 2009, 2011, 2016, and 2018. Indeed, research reported in 2016 and 2018 (vs. 2009 and 2011) had larger sample sizes and relied more on online data collection and self-report measures. Thus, over these years, research improved in its statistical power, but also changed with regard to the methods applied. Implications for social psychology as a discipline are discussed.
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Spearman’s g is the name for the shared variance across a set of intercorrelating cognitive tasks. For some—but not all—theorists, g is defined as general intelligence. While g is robustly observed in Western populations, it is questionable whether g is manifested in cognitive data from other cultural groups. To test whether g is a cross-cultural phenomenon, we searched for correlation matrices or data files containing cognitive variables collected from individuals in non-Western, nonindustrialized nations. We subjected these data to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using promax rotation and 2 modern methods of selecting the number of factors. Samples that produced more than 1 factor were then subjected to a second-order EFA using the same procedures and a Schmid-Leiman solution. Across 97 samples from 31 countries totaling 52,340 individuals, we found that a single factor emerged unambiguously from 71 samples (73.2%) and that 23 of the remaining 26 samples (88.5%) produced a single second-order factor. The first factor in the initial EFA explained an average of 45.9% of observed variable variance (SD = 12.9%), which is similar to what is seen in Western samples. One sample that produced multiple second-order factors only did so with 1 method of selecting the number of factors in the initial EFA; the alternate method of selecting the number of factors produced a single higher-order factor. Factor extraction in a higher-order EFA was not possible in 2 samples. These results show that g appears in many cultures and is likely a universal phenomenon in humans.
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Research on leadership emergence has mainly focused on adulthood and relied on retrospective accounts of childhood factors. Based on a prospective cohort study of 7719 boys born in 1953, of which 5928 were later drafted, we explored individual differences in leadership emergence in childhood and early adulthood. The data set consisted of register data from different time points and a survey of the cohort in the 6th grade. As expected, cognitive ability, tallness and muscular power were decisive for assessment of military officer suitability. However, we also found a moderate to strong impact on this assessment score from social class, leadership aspirations in childhood, birth order, self-regulatory skills in school, parental support, and previous participation in extracurricular activities. Similarly, social class, cognitive ability, developmental experiences, and birth order were important for nominations as class party organizer in the 6th grade. Delay of gratification was not associated with these nominations at all and was neutralized by cognitive ability in relation to officer suitability. The results strongly support a life-cycle approach to leadership emergence.
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There are many factors that go into high educational and occupational achievement, including hard work, motivation, and luck. But how important is talent? Specifically, how likely were global innovators and leaders intellectually talented or gifted when younger? This paper reviews retrospective data on multiple US samples (Total N = 11,745), including Chief Executive Officers, federal judges, politicians, multi-millionaires and billionaires, business leaders, elite journalists, and the “most globally powerful men and women”, examining to what extent these groups were in the top 1% in general intellectual talent in youth, also examining their educational backgrounds. About 50% of these leaders were in the top 1% of our indicator of ability, so overrepresented by a factor of about 50. Elite education, and especially the impact of Harvard, was notable, suggesting that in addition to talent, elite education and networks were important. These data suggest that various occupations may draw from different levels of intellectual giftedness. Based on this data and a synthesis of prior literature, concrete policy recommendations for gifted education are provided. We recommend a policy focus on talented low income and disadvantaged students, who are greatly underrepresented among these leaders of US society.
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Abstract Even though higher intelligence (IQ) is often associated with many positive outcomes in life, it has become a stylized fact in the happiness literature that smarter people are not happier than their less intelligent counterparts. In this paper, we examine how relative verbal intelligence correlates with happiness and present two main findings. First, our estimations from the General Social Survey for a large representative sample of Americans suggest a small, but positive and significant correlation between verbal intelligence and happiness. Second, we find that verbal intelligence has a strong positional effect on happiness, i.e., people who have greater verbal proficiency relative to their peers in their reference group are more likely to report higher levels of happiness. The positional effect of happiness holds even when we control for a large set of socio-economic characteristics as well as relative income.
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Background Few cognitive epidemiology studies on mental health have focused on the links between pre-morbid intelligence and self-reports of common mental disorders, such as depression, sleep difficulties, and mental health status. The current study examines these associations in 50-year-old adults. Methods The study uses data from the 5793 participants in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY-79) who responded to questions on mental health at age 50 and had IQ measured with the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) when they were aged between 15 and 23 years in 1980. Mental health outcomes were: life-time diagnosis of depression; the mental component score of the 12-item short-form Health Survey (SF-12); the 7-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D); and a summary measure of sleep difficulty. Results & conclusion Higher intelligence in youth is associated with a reduced risk of self-reported mental health problems at age 50, with age-at-first-interview and sex adjusted Bs as follows: CES-depression (B = − 0.16, C.I. − 0.19 to − 0.12, p < 0.001), sleep difficulties (B = − 0.11, C.I. − 0.13 to − 0.08, p < 0.001), and SF-12 mental health status (OR = 0.78, C.I. 0.72 to 0.85, p < 0.001; r = − 0.03 p = 0.075). Conversely, intelligence in youth is linked with an increased risk of receiving a diagnosis of depression by the age of 50 (OR 1.11, C.I. 1.01 to 1.22, p = 0.024; r = 0.03, p = 0.109). No sex differences were observed in the associations. Adjusting for adult SES accounted for most of the association between IQ and the mental health outcomes, except for having reported a diagnosis of depression, in which case adjusting for adult SES led to an increase in the size of the positive association (OR = 1.32, C.I. 1.16 to 1.51, p < 0.001).
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We introduce the concept of differential prediction generalization in the context of college admissions testing. Specifically, we assess the extent to which predicted first-year college grade-point average (GPA) based on high-school grade point average (HSGPA) and SAT scores depends on a student’s ethnicity and gender and whether this difference varies across samples. We compared 257,336 female and 220,433 male students across 339 samples, 29,734 Black and 304,372 White students across 247 samples, and 35,681 Hispanic and 308,818 White students across 264 samples collected from 176 colleges and universities between the years 2006 and 2008. Overall, results show a lack of differential prediction generalization because variability remains after accounting for methodological and statistical artifacts including sample size, range restriction, proportion of students across ethnicity- and gender-based subgroups, subgroup mean differences on the predictors (i.e., HSGPA, SAT-Critical Reading, SAT-Math, and SAT-Writing), and standard deviations for the predictors. We offer an agenda for future research aimed at understanding several contextual reasons for a lack of differential prediction generalization based on ethnicity and gender. Results from such research will likely lead to a better understanding of the reasons for differential prediction and interventions aimed at reducing or eliminating it when it exists.
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A meta-analysis on the validity of tests of general mental ability (GMA) and specific cognitive abilities for predicting job performance and training success in the UK was conducted. An extensive literature search resulted in a database of 283 independent samples with job performance as the criterion (N=13,262), and 223 with training success as the criterion (N=75,311). Primary studies were also coded by occupational group, resulting in seven main groups (clerical, engineer, professional, driver, operator, manager, and sales), and by type of specific ability test (verbal, numerical, perceptual, and spatial). Results indicate that GMA and specific ability tests are valid predictors of both job performance and training success, with operational validities in the magnitude of .5–.6. Minor differences between these UK findings and previous US meta-analyses are reported. As expected, operational validities were moderated by occupational group, with occupational families possessing greater job complexity demonstrating higher operational validities between cognitive tests and job performance and training success. Implications for the practical use of tests of GMA and specific cognitive abilities in the context of UK selection practices are discussed in conclusion.
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This book is a comprehensive survey of our scientific knowledge about human intelligence, written by a researcher who has spent more than 30 years studying the field, receiving a Lifetime Contribution award from the International Society for Intelligence. Human Intelligence takes a non-ideological view of a topic in which, too often, writings are dominated by a single theory or social viewpoint. The book discusses the conceptual status of intelligence as a collection of cognitive skills that include, but also go beyond, those skills evaluated by conventional tests; intelligence tests and their analysis; contemporary theories of intelligence; biological and social causes of intelligence; the importance of intelligence in social, industrial, and educational spheres; the role of intelligence in determining success in life, both inside and outside educational settings; and the nature and causes of variations in intelligence across age, gender, and racial and ethnic groups.
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We examine how signals of a candidate’s capability affect perceptions of that person’s commitment to an employer. In four experimental studies that use hiring managers as subjects, we test and show that managers perceive highly capable candidates to have lower commitment to the organization than less capable but adequate candidates and, as a result, penalize high-capability candidates in the hiring process. Our results show that managers have concerns about a high-capability candidate’s future commitment to the organization because they view highly capable candidates as having lower levels of organizational interest—meaning they care less about the mission and values of the organization and exert a lower level of effort toward those ends—and because they assume highly capable candidates have more outside job options, increasing their flight risk. Our findings highlight that capability signals do not necessarily afford candidates an advantage in selection, suggesting an upper limit on credentials and other signals of capability in helping candidates get jobs. Our study contributes to research on labor markets, human capital, and credentialing by offering a theory for why and when capability signals can negatively influence job candidate selection decisions.
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Objectives: Prior scholarship assessing the association between verbal IQ and antisocial behavior has generally assumed that the functional form of the association is linear. Nevertheless, if this assumption is not valid, the interpretations from prior scholarship could be biased. The current study reexamines the functional form of the association between verbal IQ and antisocial behavior to address three limitations in the prior scholarship and four research questions. Methods: The current study uses data derived from the restricted version of the Add Health (N = 9947-14,921). Forty-eight multivariate negative binomial regression models and twelve bivariate non-parametric kernel regression models were used to estimate the association between verbal IQ and antisocial behavior. Results: The findings suggested that verbal IQ had both a linear and curvilinear association with antisocial behavior depending upon the operationalization of antisocial behavior, the age of the participants, the sex of the participants, and the race of the participants. Conclusions: The findings demonstrated the need for a formalized process to ensure the proper specification of the direct association between verbal IQ and antisocial behavior. As outlined, the two-step process encourages future scholarship to be extremely meticulous when specifying the association between verbal IQ and antisocial behavior.
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In the present study, we investigated the relationships between objective overqualification, perceived overqualification, and job satisfaction based on the tenets of P-E fit theory, a commonly-used theoretical framework in the overqualification literature. Specifically, we tested whether employee perceptions of overqualification mediate the relationship between objective overqualification and job dissatisfaction. Results across two studies indicated that objective overqualification and job satisfaction independently predicted perceived overqualification, which contradicts the prevailing view in the literature of unidirectional effects between verqualification and strain outcomes. Study 1 used a cross-sectional survey of recent college graduates to test the overall mediation model. Although the model was supported, the relationship between objective overqualification and job satisfaction was not significant, raising the question of whether the hypothesized predictive relationship between perceived overqualification and job satisfaction is reversed. Study 2 tested directionality in the relationship between perceived overqualification and job satisfaction using a three-wave longitudinal panel design in a sample of full-time university staff employees. Results indicated that job dissatisfaction predicts subsequent perceived overqualification rather than the reverse.
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Amid concerns about diversity and the test's utility, many are moving away from the GRE.
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Effect sizes are underappreciated and often misinterpreted—the most common mistakes being to describe them in ways that are uninformative (e.g., using arbitrary standards) or misleading (e.g., squaring effect-size rs). We propose that effect sizes can be usefully evaluated by comparing them with well-understood benchmarks or by considering them in terms of concrete consequences. In that light, we conclude that when reliably estimated (a critical consideration), an effect-size r of .05 indicates an effect that is very small for the explanation of single events but potentially consequential in the not-very-long run, an effect-size r of .10 indicates an effect that is still small at the level of single events but potentially more ultimately consequential, an effect-size r of .20 indicates a medium effect that is of some explanatory and practical use even in the short run and therefore even more important, and an effect-size r of .30 indicates a large effect that is potentially powerful in both the short and the long run. A very large effect size (r = .40 or greater) in the context of psychological research is likely to be a gross overestimate that will rarely be found in a large sample or in a replication. Our goal is to help advance the treatment of effect sizes so that rather than being numbers that are ignored, reported without interpretation, or interpreted superficially or incorrectly, they become aspects of research reports that can better inform the application and theoretical development of psychological research.
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Several studies have investigated the relations between cognitive ability and Big Five personality constructs. The present study extended previous research by (a) examining these relationships in large samples (total N = 120,014), (b) including several measures of cognitive ability and personality, (c) examining both domain and facet‐level personality scores, (d) expanding the personality domains studied to include Machiavellianism, and (e) correcting the observed correlations for range restriction and reliability to provide a better statistical estimate of the relations between the cognitive and personality scores and constructs. Results were consistent with prior research showing a positive relationship between cognitive ability and Openness and negative relationships between cognitive ability and Neuroticism and Conscientiousness. Negative relations between cognitive ability and Extraversion and Agreeableness also were observed. Machiavellianism, not part of the Big Five was found to have a positive correlation with cognitive ability. Of particular interest was the finding that the relations between cognitive ability and personality were affected by the specific content of the cognitive and personality measures. Cognitive measures with verbal content were more strongly correlated with personality than were cognitive measures with math or nonverbal content for all of the samples. Also, there was considerable variability in the cognitive‐personality correlations for the facets underlying each personality domain. The variability in correlations at the facet‐level implies that cognitive‐personality relationships at the domain‐level will vary as a function of the specific content of the cognitive and personality measures. Overall, the results provide support for cognitive‐personality association at the measurement level.
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Prospective mate characteristics such as kindness, intelligence, easygoingness, and physical attraction are ranked consistently highly by both men and women. However, rank measurement does not allow for determinations of what level of a mate characteristic is rated most desirable. Based on a more informative percentile scale measurement approach, it was reported recently that mean desirability ratings of IQ in a prospective partner peaked at the 90th percentile, with a statistically significant reduction from the 90th to the 99th percentiles. The purpose of this investigation was to replicate the recently reported non‐linear desirability effect associated with IQ, in addition to the evaluation of three other valued mate characteristics: easygoing, kindness, and physical attraction. Based on a sample of 214 young adults, it was found that all four mate characteristics peaked at the 90th percentile. However, the IQ and easygoing mean desirability ratings evidenced statistically significant mean reductions across the 90th to the 99th percentiles, whereas kindness and physical attraction did not. Finally, the objectively and subjectively assessed intelligence of the participants was not found to be associated with the participants’ desirability ratings of IQ. We interpreted the results to be consistent with a broadly conceptualized threshold hypothesis, which states that the perceived benefits of valued mate characteristics may not extend beyond a certain point. However, mate characteristics such as intelligence and easygoing become somewhat less attractive at very elevated levels, at least based on preference ratings, for reasons that may be biological and/or psycho‐social in nature.
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Subjective age predicts consequential outcomes in old age, including risk of hospitalization, dementia, and mortality. Studies investigating the determinants of subjective age have mostly focused on aging-related factors measured in adulthood and old age. Little is known about the extent to which early life factors may contribute to later life subjective age. The present study examined the prospective association between IQ in adolescence and subjective age in later life and tested education, disease burden, adult cognition, and personality traits as potential mediators. Participants (N = 4494) were drawn from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Data on IQ were obtained in 1957 when participants were in high school. Education, disease burden, cognition, and personality were assessed in 1992–1993, and subjective age was measured in 2011 at age 71 (SD = 0.93). Accounting for demographic factors, results revealed that higher IQ in adolescence was associated with a younger subjective age in late life. Bootstrap analysis further showed that this association was mediated by higher openness. The present study suggests that how old or young individuals feel is partly influenced by lifespan developmental processes that may begin with early life cognitive ability.
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The maximization principle—that people aspire to the highest possible level of something good if all practical constraints are removed—is a common yet untested assumption about human nature. We predict that in holistic cultures—where contradiction, change, and context are emphasized—ideal states of being for the self will be more moderate than in other cultures. In two studies (Ns = 2,392 and 6,239), we asked this question: If participants could choose their ideal level of happiness, pleasure, freedom, health, self-esteem, longevity, and intelligence, what level would they choose? Consistent with predictions, results showed that maximization was less pronounced in holistic cultures; members of holistic cultures aspired to less happiness, pleasure, freedom, health, self-esteem, longevity, and IQ than did members of other cultures. In contrast, no differences emerged on ideals for society. The studies show that the maximization principle is not a universal aspect of human nature and that there are predictable cultural differences in people’s notions of perfection.
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The emergence of the popular culture notion of a sapiosexual, an individual who finds high levels of intelligence (IQ) the most sexually attractive characteristic in a person, suggests that a high IQ may be a genuinely sexually attractive trait, at least for some people. Consequently, mean desirability ratings of IQ on a percentile continuum were estimated, across sexual attraction specifically and long-term partner interest conditions (N = 383). Furthermore, we evaluated the psychometric properties of a newly developed measure, the Sapiosexuality Questionnaire (SapioQ). Finally, we estimated the correlation between objective intelligence and the SapioQ. On average, the 90th percentile of intelligence (IQ ≈ 120) was rated to be the most sexually attractive and the most desirable in a long-term partner. However, 8.1% and 1.3% of the sample scored above 4.0 and 4.5, respectively, on the SapioQ (theoretical range: 1 to 5), which had respectable psychometric properties. The desirability ratings across the IQ percentile continuum interacted with the two conditions (i.e., sexual attraction specifically versus partner interest), such that the rater desirability of IQ increased more substantially for partner interest than sexual attraction specifically across the 25th to 75th IQ percentiles. Finally, objective intelligence correlated negatively with rated sexual attraction specifically and partner interest for a hypothetical person at 25th and 50th percentiles of IQ (r ≈ − 0.25). By contrast, objective intelligence failed to correlate with sapiosexuality (r = − 0.02, p = 0.765; BF01 = 12.84). The results were interpreted to suggest that, for most people, a very high IQ in a partner (IQ 135 +) is not the most attractive level of intelligence, which may be considered supportive of a version of the threshold hypothesis of intelligence. Finally, although sapiosexuality may be a genuine psychological construct, it appears to be influenced by non-intellective factors.
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The cognitive ability differentiation hypothesis, which is also termed Spearman's Law of Diminishing Returns, proposes that cognitive ability tests are less correlated and less g loaded in higher ability populations. In addition, the age differentiation hypothesis proposes that the structure of cognitive ability varies across respondent age. To clarify the literature regarding these expectations, 106 articles containing