Kids With High IQs Live Longer

Children with high IQs live longer, but it is not clear exactly what role IQ plays in longevity, new British research shows.

[yernogood-]

Then I'll probably live forever.

[bjreed]

I do not believe the hypothesis. In fact, I would guess that children with higher IQ's would definitely live shorter years. For one thing, they are more likely to commit suicide. They are also more likely to indulge in high risk activities, such as speed skiing, etc. High IQ does not equate with higher caution.

[ring-2]

Seems like a bit of a stretch to me too.

IQ and [i]g[/i] correlate with LOTS of different things. Whites and especially certain groups of Jews score higher as a population on most standardized IQ tests. Many types of high-paying jobs are held by people with higher-than-average IQs. There are so many third variable problems with this that it's completely disingenuous to claim that high IQ = longer life.

Maybe it's more fair to say that being wealthy, holding down a good job that you enjoy, having the chance to eat healthy foods, living and growing up in a low-crime area, and having good health insurance is correlated with longer lifespans. Just pointing to one factor among many is silly, especially when they all seem to hang together.

[Chuck]

I agree Randy that affluent people tend to have the best health care, eat better foods, live in low crime neighborhoods and so on. These obtained and inherited statuses even with a high IQ does not prolong life. Suicide and usually cancer follow these individuals.

My great grandmother is alive at the age of 104 she out lived 5 of her children. she had no education, worked on plantations and she is still here, please explain! My father is 87 with a 3rd grade education retired from Sears, still healthy. Both have low IQ'S and long lives, I don't understand. By the way they still eat pork!

So, I agree Randy that it is fair to say IQ has nothing to do with it.

[_Space1]

The life span of an individual can not be weighed through his IQ. Death is unpredictable. It happens to anybody,low IQ or not.

[ring-2]

_Space1 wrote:

The life span of an individual can not be weighed through his IQ. Death is unpredictable. It happens to anybody,low IQ or not.

Yeah, absolutely. It's always good to keep in mind that trying to apply population statistics to an individual out of context is bad. There might be a correlation, but that's no kind of guarantee; it's more of a statement of probabilities.

[Chuck]

I'm involved in a discussion at Roosevelt University, that involve IQ and crime. Many believe that low IQ's predominately minorities is the reason for high crime levels among this group. I expressed white collard crime is under reported and prosecuted and have a high level of crime. This group is believed to have very high IQ's yet so much crime is committed. My question is do you think IQ matters? If not,explain please.

[ring-2]

Chuck wrote:

I'm involved in a discussion at Roosevelt University, that involve IQ and crime. Many believe that low IQ's predominately minorities is the reason for high crime levels among this group. I expressed white collard crime is under reported and prosecuted and have a high level of crime. This group is believed to have very high IQ's yet so much crime is committed. My question is do you think IQ matters? If not,explain please.

It might be a contributing factor. You could argue that modern intelligence tests (WJ, WAIS, etc) devalue concrete thought processes and put a higher value on analytical thought. Perhaps that concrete approach to problem solving (you have money, I want money, etc) could contribute to crime.

More later.

[ring-2]

Chuck wrote:

I'm involved in a discussion at Roosevelt University, that involve IQ and crime. Many believe that low IQ's predominately minorities is the reason for high crime levels among this group. I expressed white collard crime is under reported and prosecuted and have a high level of crime. This group is believed to have very high IQ's yet so much crime is committed. My question is do you think IQ matters? If not,explain please.

The other side will probably argue that the current generation of IQ tests are simply culturally biased, and that crime has more to do with poverty than anything else... and that if there's a "link" it's because both crime and IQ share the same third variable problem (poverty). It's not a bad argument, but you could load up on some Jensen to try to refute it and lay the blame on IQ differences between "races."

Better wear fire retardant underwear though. ;)

[ring-2]

Sorry about that, Halo is making my brain twitchy.

With regards to white collar crime, I'm not familiar with any studies that looked specifically at the IQ of "white collar" criminals. If that group does indeed have higher than average IQ (and it wouldn't surprise me) it may be responsible for why it's "under-reported and prosecuted." Well, that and as a society we're simply more afraid and outraged by violent crime than white collar crime.

Robbing a liquor store at gunpoint for $20 is simply seen as more heinous and more dangerous to society than some guy in an office embezzling $20,000. Whether it actually is better or worse is debatable, but that's how it's seen.

[nmweatherman]

"Kids With High IQs Live Longer"

That's bad news for me. Frankly, I've seen enough. I'm ready to go.

[yernogood-]

nmweatherman wrote:

"Kids With High IQs Live Longer"
That's bad news for me. Frankly, I've seen enough. I'm ready to go.

Well if your stupid you’re in luck. Otherwise sorry, life is grand!

[Say Hay]

_Space1 wrote:

The life span of an individual can not be weighed through his IQ. Death is unpredictable. It happens to anybody,low IQ or not.

Death is predictable. It happens to everybody, high IQ or not.

[nmweatherman]

yernogood- wrote:

<quoted text>Well if your stupid you’re in luck. Otherwise sorry, life is grand!

My IQ is in the lower range, 130, and it's been a burden all my life, playing dumb to get along with peers.

Also my IQ has given my mind eyes to see how twisted and dangerous the world is.

[arnold kolhonen]

I believe people with lower IQs have a longer life span simply because they worry less about everything and the smart constantly worry about everything such as there money , positions in life,how to screw the poor out of there money etc. worry,worry,worry to an early grave.

[yernogood-]

nmweatherman wrote:

<quoted text>
My IQ is in the lower range, 130, and it's been a burden all my life, playing dumb to get along with peers.
Also my IQ has given my mind eyes to see how twisted and dangerous the world is.

Sounds like you have a pretty low opinion of your peers or you like hanging with lesser people so you can make this claim. I have to dumb down to no one. Maybe I’m one of your peers.

[_Space1]

Say Hay wrote:

<quoted text>Death is predictable. It happens to everybody, high IQ or not.

But we don't know the exact certain death,unless it is planned ahead of time.

[yernogood-]

I think we chop their little heads off and be done with them. My kids included. In fact first.

[LordZarquar]

Eliminating bias especially cultural bias to have a truly neutral IQ test is impossible. Questions are often culturally specific on accident. For example, they might ask kids questions that deal with classical composers that kids in some inner city ghettos haven't heard of and then the kids get those questions wrong not because they don't have the reasoning skills to figure it out but because they're not familiar with the material. They actually did a study where they had a mostly white suburban school and an inner city mostly latino school take 2 IQ tests, one was a regular IQ test and another had the questions written that tested the same skills but were about things more common in the inner city culture such as dice games. In the 2nd test the inner city kids did better.

Another problem is difference in language and the performance of schools. Inner city kids often speech slang dialects of English and go to poorly funded and poorly staffed public schools that aren't the best at teaching so some of the difference is due to difficulty comprehending standard english instead of the logic and reasoning skills IQ tests are meant to test for. Think of it this way. If a person only knows Spanish and you give them an IQ test in English they're going to get 0 no matter how smart they are, so logically if someone has an imperfect understanding of standard English its going to effect their score.

Considering the unconscious bias of IQ tests to higher income and white students its not a surprise that kids who score higher on IQ tests live longer. They're more likely to come from a more comfortable background, grow up in safer neighborhoods, are more likely to go to college(and not just because they're smart), go to schools that have better resources and better trained teachers, and have parents that care about them(since parents that care about their children will expose them to more things that might incidentally be on IQ tests(i.e. composers) while parents that don't won't), and be more successful throughout life(due to socioeconomic and educational background and a better grasp of standard English so they don't sound ghetto to potential employers).

That these groups score lower probably reflects real differences as far as good nutrition helps brain development(and the poor have less access to good nutrition) and because environmental factors such as what you learn in critical stages of development contribute.

Asians do score highest on average than whites, but consider how much harder it is for them to immigrate here. They have to cross the Pacific. Can't just swim. They need to either have a lot of money already or have a profession that's wanted in America enough to find some sponsorship to pay their way here. As a result most Asian-American immigration comes from the upper classes and middle class professionals in Asian societies. Another reason is it seems that Asian cultures usually put more emphasis on hard work and studying. They come here, they continue doing good, get their kids into good schools and pass on their values of hard work.

[wichitarick]

Good post thanks
I will be honest ,for the first time EVER on the web I did not follow this first post to validate my post,thoughts etc.
I read British ,i.q. tests children etc. I all ready know it has flaws.
I have spent several mo,s following real facts and figures for 100,s of these "tests"
Mostly for drugs and mental problems
My continuing interest in I.Q. brings me here (again)because of MY decreasing levels and my highly gifted daughters rising levels .
I agree with the thought about a neutral I.Q. test
But when combined with basic memory games it is easy to show a difference in a group of people .
I see the link with "smart" and crime because of the drop out rate for "gifted" people is very high.
Drug use etc. DUH...LOL...
I am trying to play games with my kid ! anyone want to recommend some "I.Q. tests (free lol) that she could take to show her teachers.
I was thinking (oh no) to show as a difference between the tests she took this year for the chool system.
I hope someone can make sense of my rambling
at least I am trying . Rick

I.Q. SCORES MEAN NOTHING IF i CAN ONLY REMEMBER IT FOR A DAY OR TWO. R..C.