5 ms·
Wealth does not necessarily correlate with intelligence.
by bryanh 15y ago
Wealth does not necessarily correlate with intelligence.
- cek 15y agoAnd intelligence does not necessarily correlate to good decision making (or business acumen).
- DevX101 15y agoI'd be willing to bet that self-made wealth from non-politicians correlates strongly with intelligence.
- weff 15y agoAlso perseverance and luck.
- glimcat 15y agoIntelligence already likely correlates well with being a stubborn bastard. It helps with the part where you obsessively study topics everyone else thinks are too boring or inaccessible.
- _delirium 15y agoMost of the most intelligent people I know are actually pretty bad at monetizing that, though, in part precisely because they're way too distracted by the constant drive to learn new things (rather than picking a few and building a solid market niche), and in part because many seem more interested in the mental challenge of understanding something than the actual profits from monetizing that understanding.
- thurn 15y agoSure it does: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/10/12/the-correlation-between-income-and-sat-scores/ http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/10/12/the-correlat... Causation is a bit trickier to show, though.
- sandee 15y agoYes. "Smart people make more money but don’t end up any wealthier" is the more accurate statement http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/smart-doesnt-equal-rich/ http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/smart-doesnt-...
- danielsoneg 15y agoWealth accumulation roughly follows the process of "1. Earn money 2. Don't spend it" - It doesn't strain credulity that IQ might be correlated with the former, but not the latter. I'm curious as to the effect on quality of life - measuring wealth in dollars is easier, but a pretty imprecise measure of the overall effect on someone's life of a few IQ points. I'm even more curious as to the effects on happiness... Edit: Not much, apparently: http://www.quora.com/Happiness/Is-it-true-that-less-intelligent-people-are-happier-than-smart-people-Why-or-why-not http://www.quora.com/Happiness/Is-it-true-that-less-intellig...
- byrneseyeview 15y agoWealth does correlate with intelligence: http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-covariance-between-cognitive-ability-and-income http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-covariance-between-cognitiv... The phrase "does not necessarily correlate" needs some unpacking. I think anyone would agree that for N=2 that's true, but for higher numbers it would indicate sample error.
- jquery 15y agoFrom your own link: "Since the statistical results are not distinguishable from zero, this suggests IQ test scores and net worth are not connected." (em. added)
- FaceKicker 15y agoThat's a common misinterpretation of the results of statistical tests. You can never conclude from that type of test that two things are not correlated, you can only conclude that the data you have does not suggest a correlation ("fail to reject the null hypothesis").
- Codayus 15y ago...but actually, it does. http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2011/04/iq-income-and-wealth.html http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2011/04/iq-income-and-weal... Zagorsky is being sited in other comments here, but the problem with Zagorsky is that his results control for education and income. Problem: Education and income is highly correlated with IQ. What Zagorsky is saying is that, for people with a given level of education and income, a higher IQ doesn't really help you much. Fine...but it could hardly be less relevant to the question of whether wealth and IQ tend to be found together! Let's unpack Zagorsky a bit more: Overall, people with a low IQs, no degree, and a poorly paying job have a low net worth. Overall, people with a high IQ, no degree, and a poorly paying job also have a low net worth. However, most people with a high IQ have a degree, a well paying job, and a high net worth. Zagorsky concludes that IQ doesn't matter, but this is, frankly, nonsense.