Intelligenz und psychische Probleme

[Bwana Honolulu]

Bad News for the Highly Intelligent

Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

There are advantages to being smart. People who do well on standardized tests of intelligence—IQ tests—tend to be more successful in the classroom and the workplace. Although the reasons are not fully understood, they also tend to live longer, healthier lives, and are less likely to experience negative life events such as bankruptcy.

Now there’s some bad news for people in the right tail of the IQ bell curve. In a study just published in the journal Intelligence, Pitzer College researcher Ruth Karpinski and her colleagues emailed a survey with questions about psychological and physiological disorders to members of Mensa. A “high IQ society”, Mensa requires that its members have an IQ in the top two percent. For most intelligence tests, this corresponds to an IQ of about 132 or higher. (The average IQ of the general population is 100.) The survey of Mensa’s highly intelligent members found that they were more likely to suffer from a range of serious disorders.

The survey covered mood disorders (depression, dysthymia, and bipolar), anxiety disorders (generalized, social, and obsessive-compulsive), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. It also covered environmental allergies, asthma, and autoimmune disorders. Respondents were asked to report whether they had ever been formally diagnosed with each disorder, or suspected they suffered from it. With a return rate of nearly 75%, Karpinski and colleagues compared the percentage of the 3,715 respondents who reported each disorder to the national average.

The biggest differences between the Mensa group and the general population were seen for mood disorders and anxiety disorders. More than a quarter (26.7%) of the sample reported that they had been formally diagnosed with a mood disorder, while 20% reported an anxiety disorder—far higher than the national averages of around 10% for each. The differences were smaller, but still statistically significant and practically meaningful, for most of the other disorders. The prevalence of environmental allergies was triple the national average (33% vs. 11%).

To explain their findings, Karpinski and colleagues propose the hyper brain/hyper body theory. This theory holds that, for all of its advantages, being highly intelligent is associated with psychological and physiological “overexcitabilities”, or OEs. A concept introduced by the Polish psychiatrist and psychologist Kazimierz Dbrowski in the 1960s, an OE is an unusually intense reaction to an environmental threat or insult. This can include anything from a startling sound to confrontation with another person.

Psychological OEs include a heighted tendency to ruminate and worry, whereas physiological OEs arise from the body’s response to stress. According to the hyper brain/hyper body theory, these two types of OEs are more common in highly intelligent people and interact with each other in a “vicious cycle” to cause both psychological and physiological dysfunction. For example, a highly intelligent person may overanalyze a disapproving comment made by a boss, imagining negative outcomes that simply wouldn’t occur to someone less intelligent. That may trigger the body’s stress response, which may make the person even more anxious.

The results of this study must be interpreted cautiously because they are correlational. Showing that a disorder is more common in a sample of people with high IQs than in the general population doesn’t prove that high intelligence is the cause of the disorder. It’s also possible that people who join Mensa differ from other people in ways other than just IQ. For example, people preoccupied with intellectual pursuits may spend less time than the average person on physical exercise and social interaction, both of which have been shown to have broad benefits for psychological and physical health.

All the same, Karpinski and colleagues’ findings set the stage for research that promises to shed new light on the link between intelligence and health. One possibility is that associations between intelligence and health outcomes reflect pleiotropy, which occurs when a gene influences seemingly unrelated traits. There is already some evidence to suggest that this is the case. In a 2015 study, Rosalind Arden and her colleagues concluded that the association between IQ and longevity is mostly explained by genetic factors.

From a practical standpoint, this research may ultimately lead to insights about how to improve people’s psychological and physical well-being. If overexcitabilities turn out to be the mechanism underlying the IQ-health relationship, then interventions aimed at curbing these sometimes maladaptive responses may help people lead happier, healthier lives.

[fehlgeleitet]

andere Studien behaupteten obdachlose wären psychisch krank, und zwar in dem Sinne das sie nen Gehirnschaden hätten. Ich denke diese Studien sind mit Vorsicht zu genießen.

[Bwana Honolulu]

andere Studien behaupteten obdachlose wären psychisch krank, und zwar in dem Sinne das sie nen Gehirnschaden hätten.

Naja, wenn du Studie besagt, daß Obdachlose durch die Obdachlosigkeit 'nen Schaden bekommen können, dann kann ich das durchaus glauben. Wenn die Studie sagt, daß man (nur) obdachlos wird, weil man einen Hirnschaden hat, dann finde ich das mindestens befremdlich.

Das heißt aber nicht, daß die von mir verlinkte Studie auch automatisch falsch ist, nur, weil sie ein ähnliches Gebiet berührt. Was ich natürlich kritisieren würde, ist die ausschließliche Auswahl der Studienteilnehmer aus Mensa...

Wir hatten übrigens auch schon diese (von allen weitgehend ignorierte) Studie, daß Macht physisch messbare psychische Störungen verursachen kann.

Ich denke diese Studien sind mit Vorsicht zu genießen.

Das gilt für alle Studien. Und?

[Cpt. Bucky Saia]

Is ja kein wunder das man psychische Probleme kriegt wenn man den ganzen scheiß anfängt zu hinterfragen.

Würd mich zwar nicht grade als intelligent bezeichnen aber je mehr ich über den ganzen Irrsinn nachdenke desto beschissener gehts meiner Psyche. Manchmal wünsch ich mir ich könnt auch so einfach mit Bier und Fußball glücklich sein.

[Bwana Honolulu]

Why Intelligent Optimism Is Crucial to Human Progress

There is nothing to be gained from blind optimism. But an optimistic mindset can be grounded in rationality and evidence. It may be hard to believe, but we are living in the most exciting time in human history. Despite all of our ongoing global challenges, humanity has never been better off. Not only are we living healthier, happier, and safer lives than ever before, but new technological tools are also opening up a universe of opportunities.

In order to continue to launch moonshot ideas, tackle global challenges, and push humanity forward, it’s important to be intelligently optimistic about the future.

Our Pessimism Bias

When we think about the future of our species, many of us are inherently pessimistic. Our brains are wired to pay more attention to the threats in our personal lives and our world at large.

Many studies have shown we react more strongly to negative stimuli than positive stimuli, and that we dedicate more of our brain resources to negative information. Some psychologists have also shown that we tend to give greater weight to negative thoughts when making decisions and that we tend to remember negative events in our lives more than positives.

There is an evolutionary advantage to these tendencies. We often forget that our neural hardware has been developed to survive the African savannah, where survival depended on being aware of constant sources of danger. But it may no longer serve its purpose in our modern world.

The media is partially to blame for adding fuel to the fire. In fact, studies show that bad news outweighs good news by as much as seventeen negative news reports for every one good one. News agencies know very well that we will pay more attention to bad news and hence, “If it bleeds, it leads.”

Another team of psychologists from McGill revealed that people tend to choose to read articles with negative tones and respond much faster to headlines with negative words. You’re not constantly seeing negative headlines because the world is getting worse, you’re constantly seeing negative headlines because that’s what audiences react to.

Studies have shown that the public tends to pay most attention to news about war and terrorism and least about science and technology. Consequently, we have trained journalists and news channels to focus on those issues more than on our innovative breakthroughs. What does that say about us as a society?

A Need for Intelligent Optimism

Intelligent optimism is all about being excited about the future in an informed and rational way. The mindset is critical if we are to get everyone excited about the future by highlighting the rapid progress we have made and recognizing the tremendous potential humans have to find solutions to our problems.

Despite ongoing challenges, we have a lot to celebrate about how far we’ve come as a species. As optimists like Peter Diamandis point out, we are living in an era of abundance, and there’s a lot of evidence to prove it.

Let’s be very clear: being intelligently optimistic does not mean we turn our backs to the many global challenges we are faced with today. Our world is far from perfect. The refugee crisis, climate change, wealth inequality, and other global issues are significant and worthy of our attention.

But as physicist and futurist David Deutsch points out, “Problems exist; and problems are soluble with the right knowledge.” Intelligent optimism involves recognizing the many problems we are faced with and acknowledging that we can solve them just as we have overcome many other challenges in the past.

A Critical Mindset for Progress

We can’t let negative headlines and the media shape our perception of ourselves as a species, and the vision we have for the future. As legendary astronomer Carl Sagan said, “For all of our failings, despite our limitations and fallibility, we humans are capable of greatness.”

Hollywood likes to paint disproportionately dystopian visions of the world, and while those are possible futures, we can and must also imagine a future of humanity where we live in abundance, prosperity, and transcendence. We can’t expect current innovators and future generations to make this positive vision a reality if they believe our species is doomed for failure. It inspires us to continue to contribute to human progress and feel that we can push humanity forward.

It’s absolutely critical that our journalists cover the many challenges, threats, and issues in our world today. But just as we report the significant negative news in the world, we must also continue to highlight humanity’s accomplishments. After all, how can our youth grow up believing they can have a positive impact on the world if the news is suggesting otherwise?

[Tarvoc]

Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

In dieser Gesellschaft? Ja sicher. Welcher intelligente Mensch entwickelt denn bitte nicht Depressionen oder sonstige Störungen bei der saudummen Scheiße, die in unserer Weltgesellschaft jeden Tag abläuft?

[Cpt. Bucky Saia]

Also werden die Depressiven von den Dummen regiert? Würde zumindest erklären warum sich nichts ändert.

[Tarvoc]

Also werden die Depressiven von den Dummen regiert?

Das ist sicher eine Art, das zu formulieren, allerdings m.E. eine schlechte. Die Dummheit, die heute das größte Problem darstellt, ist keine individuelle, sondern eine strukturelle.

Guckst du hier.

[fehlgeleitet]

mh der Mathematiker in mir denkt unweigerlich an das Gefangenendillema. Das dürfte doch bekannt sein?

Also alle beteiligten verhalten sich rational, und keiner will das Endergebniss. Andrerseits muß ja irgendwer ein Interesse daran haben, dass das Spiel so weiter gespielt wird. Mag sein, dass der Direktor nicht anders kann, aber warum ist er überhaupt Direktor geworden? Irgendetwas in ihm wollte doch diese Position.