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Research suggests that intelligence (which is difficult to define) is not better than being born into wealth. Exhibit 1: "intelligence is a powerful predictor

Research suggests that intelligence (which is difficult to define) is not better than being born into wealth. Exhibit 1: "intelligence is a powerful predictor of success but, on the whole, not an overwhelmingly better predictor than parental SES or grades." https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2007-strenze.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2007-strenze.pdf Exhibit 2: You can also look at measures of class mobility, which suggest that the rich are staying rich, and the poor poor, more so than they have in recent history.

aje403 9y ago
In no way am I supporting or agreeing with unfettered inherited wealth and you're making an obvious statement. With that being said, someone with high intelligence and a strong work ethic does have opportunity for success, especially in the US, more so than someone with average intelligence and a strong work ethic. Of course other factors come into play. That is basic common sense.
enoch_r 9y ago
Er, the quote for exhibit 1 actually suggests that intelligence is a better (but not "overwhelmingly" better) predictor than parental SES ("being born into wealth")--and reading the paper, that's in fact the correct interpretation: > Meta-analysis demonstrated that parental SES and academic performance are indeed positively related to career success but the predictive power of these variables is not stronger than that of intelligence (see Table 1). In fact, intelligence exhibited several correlations with the measures of success that were larger than the respective correlations for other predictors suggesting that intelligence is, after all, a better predictor of success. Since intelligence is just one of many personality factors that might increase productivity (e.g. diligence or conscientiousness are important for a successful career) the fact that intelligence alone is a better predictor of SES than parental SES is actually kind of surprising in the other direction. (This is especially striking since "high parental SES" means not only "being born into wealth," but also "having the genes of people with high SES." If SES is correlated with things that are heritable--it is--we should absolutely expect parental SES to have a large effect on outcomes no matter what.)
- noelwelsh 9y ago
  If you've read it in depth, did the paper look at causality at all? There is evidence that poverty causes a drop in intelligence (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/poverty-intelligence-aging-brain-low-income-inequality-a7333506.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/poverty-intelligen...) If this is the case then a correlation between intelligence and wealth is not necessarily indicating that intelligence causes wealth.

aje403 9y ago

In no way am I supporting or agreeing with unfettered inherited wealth and you're making an obvious statement. With that being said, someone with high intelligence and a strong work ethic does have opportunity for success, especially in the US, more so than someone with average intelligence and a strong work ethic. Of course other factors come into play. That is basic common sense.

enoch_r 9y ago

Er, the quote for exhibit 1 actually suggests that intelligence is a better (but not "overwhelmingly" better) predictor than parental SES ("being born into wealth")--and reading the paper, that's in fact the correct interpretation: > Meta-analysis demonstrated that parental SES and academic performance are indeed positively related to career success but the predictive power of these variables is not stronger than that of intelligence (see Table 1). In fact, intelligence exhibited several correlations with the measures of success that were larger than the respective correlations for other predictors suggesting that intelligence is, after all, a better predictor of success. Since intelligence is just one of many personality factors that might increase productivity (e.g. diligence or conscientiousness are important for a successful career) the fact that intelligence alone is a better predictor of SES than parental SES is actually kind of surprising in the other direction. (This is especially striking since "high parental SES" means not only "being born into wealth," but also "having the genes of people with high SES." If SES is correlated with things that are heritable--it is--we should absolutely expect parental SES to have a large effect on outcomes no matter what.)

noelwelsh 9y ago
If you've read it in depth, did the paper look at causality at all? There is evidence that poverty causes a drop in intelligence (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/poverty-intelligence-aging-brain-low-income-inequality-a7333506.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/poverty-intelligen...) If this is the case then a correlation between intelligence and wealth is not necessarily indicating that intelligence causes wealth.