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I don't still have the link, but this reminds me of a conversation I read where people were speculating that intelligent people are more likely to take strange

I don't still have the link, but this reminds me of a conversation I read where people were speculating that intelligent people are more likely to take strange ideas seriously and sometimes believe them, because they're good enough at telling good ideas from bad ideas that they have less need for a blanket policy against weird ideas. (Examples: transhumanism, cryptocurrency) If this holds, then intelligent people trusting others more is a specific case of intelligent people trusting their own judgement more. Of course, conspiracy theories also fall under "strange ideas", and I don't think being a conspiracy theorist correlates with high intelligence (but I may be wrong).

fmdud 13y ago
Not sure if being a conspiracy theorist correlates with high intelligence, but Bobby Fischer is a good example of someone who was a highly intelligent conspiracy theorist.
jerf 13y ago
I don't have a word for it, but I have a mental category for "stupid ideas you have to be educated to believe". Education expands the realm of things you can think, but it doesn't always come with the wisdom to discern the truth. Consequently, it can be as dangerous as it is helpful. For example, only an educated person can think that the quadratic equation is -b+/-SqRt(c^2-4ac)/2c ... an uneducated person can't make that mistake, because they can't even conceive of the problem in the first place.- (Once you start looking for this, you see it everywhere.... it's the reason why the further an academic discipline is from hard, verifiable truth, the more suspect you should consider it.)
clarkm 13y ago
Yep, intelligent people tend to measure higher on openness to experience, one of the Big Five personality traits.
Nursie 13y ago
I reckon there's probably a correlation between the people who are obsessed by cryptocurrency (in its current incarnation as BTC) that are also conspiracy theorists though...
- mareofnight 13y ago
  Ooh, point.

fmdud 13y ago

Not sure if being a conspiracy theorist correlates with high intelligence, but Bobby Fischer is a good example of someone who was a highly intelligent conspiracy theorist.

jerf 13y ago

I don't have a word for it, but I have a mental category for "stupid ideas you have to be educated to believe". Education expands the realm of things you can think, but it doesn't always come with the wisdom to discern the truth. Consequently, it can be as dangerous as it is helpful. For example, only an educated person can think that the quadratic equation is -b+/-SqRt(c^2-4ac)/2c ... an uneducated person can't make that mistake, because they can't even conceive of the problem in the first place.- (Once you start looking for this, you see it everywhere.... it's the reason why the further an academic discipline is from hard, verifiable truth, the more suspect you should consider it.)

clarkm 13y ago

Yep, intelligent people tend to measure higher on openness to experience, one of the Big Five personality traits.

Nursie 13y ago

I reckon there's probably a correlation between the people who are obsessed by cryptocurrency (in its current incarnation as BTC) that are also conspiracy theorists though...

mareofnight 13y ago
Ooh, point.