The Intelligence Paradox

1. Intelligence is not the ultimate measure of human worth

"Intelligence is just another quantitative trait of an individual like height or weight."

Misconceptions about intelligence. Many people equate intelligence with human worth, believing that more intelligent individuals are inherently more valuable. This leads to the assumption that all groups must be equally intelligent to be equally worthy. However, intelligence is simply one of many human traits, like height or weight, and should not be considered the ultimate measure of a person's value.

IQ tests and cultural bias. A common misconception is that IQ tests are culturally biased. However, tests like Raven's Progressive Matrices measure pure reasoning ability and are not inherently biased against any group. The observation of group differences in IQ scores does not necessarily imply test bias, just as differences in height or blood pressure between groups do not imply bias in measuring tools.

Intelligence vs. common sense. Intelligent people often lack common sense, which is based on evolutionarily familiar situations. This paradox suggests that higher intelligence can sometimes lead to "stupid" decisions in everyday life, challenging the notion that intelligence is universally beneficial.

2. The Savanna Principle: Our brains struggle with evolutionary novelty

"The human brain has difficulty comprehending and dealing with entities and situations that did not exist in the ancestral environment."

Evolutionary mismatch. The Savanna Principle posits that our brains are adapted to the environment of our ancestral past, not our modern world. This leads to difficulties in comprehending and dealing with evolutionarily novel situations, entities, and technologies.

Examples of the Savanna Principle:

• TV friends: People may unconsciously treat characters they see regularly on TV as real friends
• Pornography: Men's brains may not fully distinguish between images and real potential mates
• One-shot games: People often cooperate in experimental games when it's not rational, as if treating them like repeated interactions from our ancestral past

Implications. Understanding the Savanna Principle can help explain many seemingly irrational behaviors in modern society and why we sometimes struggle to adapt to new technologies and social structures.

3. General intelligence evolved to solve novel problems

"General intelligence may have become universally important in modern life only because our current environment is almost entirely evolutionarily novel."

Origin of general intelligence. The author proposes that general intelligence evolved as a domain-specific adaptation to deal with evolutionarily novel, non-recurrent problems. In the ancestral environment, most problems were solved by specialized psychological mechanisms, but occasionally, novel challenges arose that required flexible thinking.

Intelligence and evolutionary novelty. This theory suggests that more intelligent individuals are better at solving problems only if they are evolutionarily novel. They are not necessarily better at solving evolutionarily familiar problems that our ancestors routinely faced.

Modern relevance. General intelligence has become increasingly important in modern life because our current environment is filled with evolutionarily novel situations, technologies, and challenges. This explains why intelligence correlates strongly with success in modern education and occupations, which are largely evolutionarily novel.

4. More intelligent individuals tend to adopt evolutionarily novel preferences

"More intelligent individuals are more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel preferences and values that did not exist in the ancestral environment (and thus our ancestors did not have) than less intelligent individuals."

The Intelligence Paradox. This concept suggests that more intelligent people are more likely to adopt preferences and values that are evolutionarily novel, even if these preferences might be considered unnatural or biologically counterproductive.

Examples of novel preferences:

• Liberalism
• Atheism
• Nocturnal lifestyle
• Homosexuality
• Instrumental music
• Substance use
• Voluntary childlessness

Implications. This paradox explains why intelligent people often hold views or engage in behaviors that may seem counterintuitive or even harmful from an evolutionary perspective. It challenges the assumption that intelligence always leads to more adaptive or beneficial choices.

5. Liberals and atheists are more intelligent on average

"Even when statistically controlling for such relevant factors and potential confounds as age, race, education, income, and religion, more intelligent children are more likely to grow up to become more liberal than less intelligent children."

Political orientation and intelligence. Research shows that more intelligent individuals are more likely to identify as liberal and less likely to be religious. This holds true even when controlling for factors like education, income, and social background.

Evolutionary novelty of liberalism and atheism. The author argues that both liberal political views and atheism are evolutionarily novel. Our ancestors lived in small, close-knit groups where sharing resources was limited to kin and close allies. Similarly, belief in supernatural forces was likely adaptive in ancestral environments.

Societal implications. This finding may explain why liberals tend to control many social institutions, such as academia and media, as these fields often require higher levels of intelligence. It also suggests that the average intelligence of a population might influence its political and religious leanings.

6. Night owls and homosexuals show higher intelligence

"More intelligent individuals are more likely to be nocturnal, getting up later in the morning and going to bed later in the evening, than less intelligent individuals."

Circadian rhythms and intelligence. Research indicates that more intelligent individuals tend to be night owls, preferring to wake up and go to bed later. This may be because a nocturnal lifestyle is evolutionarily novel for humans, who historically relied on daylight for most activities.

Sexual orientation and intelligence. Studies show that homosexuals tend to have higher intelligence on average than heterosexuals. The author suggests this may be because exclusive homosexuality is evolutionarily novel, as it does not directly contribute to reproductive success.

Implications. These findings challenge conventional wisdom about the benefits of early rising and highlight the complex relationship between intelligence and various aspects of human behavior and preferences.

7. Intelligent people prefer instrumental music and consume more substances

"More intelligent individuals are more likely to prefer largely instrumental music (big band, classical, and easy listening) than less intelligent individuals."

Musical preferences. Research shows that more intelligent individuals tend to prefer instrumental music, such as classical and jazz. The author argues this is because purely instrumental music is evolutionarily novel, as music in ancestral environments was likely always accompanied by vocals.

Substance use. Contrary to expectations, more intelligent individuals are more likely to consume alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs. This paradoxical finding may be explained by the evolutionarily novel nature of these substances and their recreational use.

Implications:

• Challenges assumptions about "healthy" behaviors and intelligence
• Suggests that intelligence may lead to increased risk-taking in certain domains
• Highlights the complex relationship between intelligence and personal choices

8. Higher intelligence correlates with lower fertility rates

"More intelligent women are more likely to remain childless for life and to have fewer children than less intelligent women."

Intelligence and reproduction. Research shows that more intelligent women tend to have fewer children and are more likely to remain childless. This trend is less pronounced in men, possibly due to different reproductive strategies.

Evolutionary paradox. From an evolutionary perspective, this trend is paradoxical, as one would expect traits that reduce reproductive success to be selected against. The author suggests this may be due to the evolutionarily novel nature of voluntary childlessness and small family sizes.

Societal implications:

• Potential decline in average intelligence over generations
• Challenges to maintaining population levels in developed countries
• Need for societal adaptations to support smaller family sizes and childless individuals

9. Common sense and intelligence are often at odds

"Evolved psychological mechanisms are domain-specific. It means that these evolved and innate solutions to adaptive problems each operate only in their own specific narrow domains of life."

Domain-specific adaptations. Our brains have evolved specialized mechanisms to deal with specific, recurring problems in our ancestral environment. These mechanisms often operate independently of general intelligence.

Intelligence vs. common sense. In evolutionarily familiar domains, such as social interactions or basic survival skills, these specialized mechanisms (common sense) often lead to better outcomes than abstract reasoning (intelligence). This explains why highly intelligent people sometimes make poor decisions in everyday life.

Implications:

• Challenges the notion that intelligence is universally beneficial
• Suggests the importance of balancing analytical thinking with intuition and common sense
• Highlights the need for education and training in practical life skills, regardless of intelligence level

Last updated: April 10, 2025