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I assume you're referencing Grady Towers' essays about high IQ people feeling like 'Outsiders'. His argument, I think, was that high IQ does not inherently doom
by jnicholasp 10y ago
I assume you're referencing Grady Towers' essays about high IQ people feeling like 'Outsiders'. His argument, I think, was that high IQ does not inherently doom people to be outsiders/fail to get appropriate education/be unhappy and mal-adjusted/etc., but that high IQ is a potentially alienating trait and that it is the alienation - in those cases where the high IQ person doesn't have enough peers, support, and meaningful challenge - that does the damage.
What do you think of that argument, and do you know of any relevant research on that aspect of the question? It anecdotally resonates with my experience, and seems to be a prominent subsection of the responses in most threads of this type, but I would like to know what formal attempts have been made to measure it, if any exist.
Also, again IIRC, I thought Towers reassessed one of Terman's longitudinal studies and found that there was a correlation between the highest IQ individuals and social/emotional mal-adaption. Do you disagree with Towers' assessment?
- gwern 10y agoMany people are alienated and feel unable to make connections to others; I have yet to see any convincing evidence that the high IQ are especially prone to this or have any special characteristics (besides the tendency to congregate in self-pity clubs). Towers might have done such a thing but I doubt any such result.