IQ and richness
July 11th, 2007 | by mbhunter |If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I saw this headline in the Money section on MSN.com:
Will a high IQ make you richer?
So I thought about what the answer would be before I checked out the link, which would presumably answer the posed question. (If you’d like to think about the question for yourself before reading on, feel free, and go to the article here to see the title and the answer.)
My initial thoughts focused on the income side. To some extent a college degree or more will increase income. But beyond this income isn’t so much a matter of intelligence as it is a matter of prudent risk-taking. Werner Brandice from the movie Sneakers (eBay) had a 180 IQ, but he was an employee. He got a paycheck — a decent one perhaps, but only wages for his work. Maybe stock options. I don’t know. But no doubt there are a lot of really smart guys that are making their employers a ton of money. Do the employers have the highest IQs? Probably not. They were the people who probably got average grades, according to Stanley and Danko of The Millionaire Next Door (Amazon
But this wasn’t the main focus of the MSN article:
A high IQ is no financial guarantee
The questions asked were along the lines of “Have you missed a payment?” and “Have you filed for bankruptcy?” and “Have you maxed out your credit cards?” The final point made in the article was that saving and spending habits are “not rocket science,” and further that good saving and spending habits are not givens for intelligent people.
Did you try to answer the question yourself at the beginning of the post? What did you think the answer was?
11 Responses to “IQ and richness”
By Mer on Jul 11, 2007 | Reply
*checks her pile of check stubs*
No kidding.
Also? Just a small reminder… despite the fact that IQ tests are heavily skewed in favor of academic and intellectual talent, colleges often aren’t, particularly in the first 4 years. a high IQ score doesn’t mean the person in question is going to be good at being a student, or good at navigating the academic system.
By Nathania on Jul 11, 2007 | Reply
I didn’t think that high IQ was going to be a determining factor for wealth. The reason is that there are so many entrepreneurs, CEOs, etc who are classified as “learning disabled” or “ADD” by the educational system.
But the way education is set up really only recognizes a singular, traditional method of learning. Instead of celebrating the strengths and creativity of future business leaders.
By plonkee on Jul 11, 2007 | Reply
I didn’t think that a high IQ would lead to greater wealth because although income might be correlated to high IQ qualities on the other side of the being rich equation i.e. keeping money are not really related to intelligence but to common sense and discipline. I wouldn’t expect those to be well correlated with IQ.
By Madame X on Jul 12, 2007 | Reply
I’d read stats about this before, so I kind of knew what the answer would be, and I agree with the other commenters about some of the reasons why. But I’d also add that it’s partially because our culture doesn’t really value intelligence all that highly. People tend to be suspicious and dismissive of certain kinds of intelligence, and instead put more value on certain personality traits that make someone seem easy to get along with, more trustworthy, etc. And in some situations that may be a better criterion– but in general it’s a bit sad. If pay is any indication, we all care a lot more about being entertained by beautiful people and skilled athletes than we care about, say, who’s educating our children!
By mbhunter on Jul 15, 2007 | Reply
Regarding the ADHD comment by Nathania: A good friend of mine growing up was diagnosed with ADHD. He was put into a special school at one point. However, he was one of three National Merit finalists in my class (the award based on the PSAT). Smart as a whip, but I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t heard it.
By Young on Jan 27, 2008 | Reply
I expect that there may be some correlation between IQ and wealth because health is strongly correlated with both. Of course this is thinking on a highly macro level. I’ve personally seen that it’s not at all the case on a micro level!
As far as the comments about ADHD though, I’m pretty sure that having ADHD != low IQ. After all, ADHD isn’t directly correlated with low intelligence (is it?) and since some people with ADHD struggle with focusing intently on one thing and ignoring the world, they might be better able to hyper-focus on IQ tests and end up with a higher score.