The Results & Features of a Person with a High IQ | Jordan Peterson
Summary
TLDRIn the video, Dr. Jordan Peterson discusses the significant impact of high IQ on various life outcomes, including health, longevity, and success in education and occupation. He highlights IQ's predictive power over wealth and its association with physiological factors like brain size and neuron efficiency. Peterson also addresses the mystery of industriousness, which doesn't correlate with IQ despite its strong influence on planning and execution of long-term goals. The video emphasizes the importance of nutrition in IQ development and the historical context of its impact.
Takeaways
- 🧠 IQ is a strong predictor of health, longevity, resistance to post-traumatic stress disorder, occupational status, educational success, and income.
- 👶 Being born with a high IQ (at the 95th percentile) is a more powerful predictor of long-term life outcomes than being born into a wealthy family.
- 🤔 The relationship between IQ and physiological integrity of the cortex is suggested, possibly influencing emotional and motivational responses.
- 🚫 High IQ does not necessarily correlate with reduced impulsiveness or organized behavior, as personality disorders can coexist with high intelligence.
- 🔄 The correlation between IQ and industriousness is surprisingly zero, indicating that industriousness is not a cognitive feature and is a mystery yet to be solved.
- 🏗️ Industrious people are capable of effective long-term planning and execution, but this ability is not linked to their IQ levels.
- 🧐 The nature of what makes people industrious is unknown and remains a significant challenge for researchers.
- 📏 People with higher IQs tend to have slightly larger heads and brains relative to body size, and their neurons have thicker axons for more efficient signal transmission.
- ⚡ High IQ is associated with faster reflexes and simple reflex tests, indicating a physiological component to intelligence.
- 🧠 The risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is lower for those with high IQ, potentially due to a more robust brain capable of sustaining damage without noticeable effects.
- 🥗 Nutrition is a significant factor in IQ variation, with historical associations between IQ and nutritional status being more pronounced in the past.
Q & A
What is an IQ and why is it considered a good predictor of various life outcomes?
-An IQ, or Intelligence Quotient, is a measure of cognitive abilities and it is considered a good predictor of life outcomes because it correlates with health, longevity, resistance to post-traumatic stress disorder, occupational status, educational success, and income.
According to the video, which factor is a more powerful predictor of long-term life outcomes: being born into wealth or having a high IQ?
-Having a high IQ is a more powerful predictor of long-term life outcomes than being born into wealth, especially when considering the 95th percentile for intelligence.
What is the relationship between disgust sensitivity and IQ as mentioned in the video?
-The video suggests that higher IQ individuals tend to be less sensitive to disgust, although the exact reason for this correlation is not clearly understood.
How might the physiological integrity of the cortex relate to IQ?
-The video implies that IQ might be related to the physiological integrity of the cortex, suggesting that a more powerful cortex could have more inhibitory capacity over fundamental motivations and emotions.
Why might the relationship between IQ and industriousness be considered a mystery?
-The relationship between IQ and industriousness is considered a mystery because despite the common assumption that intelligence would be associated with long-term planning and industrious behavior, the correlation between the two is actually zero.
What does the video suggest about the ability to not procrastinate and its relation to cognitive features?
-The video suggests that the ability to not procrastinate, which one might assume to be a cognitive feature, does not seem to be correlated with IQ, indicating that it's not a straightforward cognitive trait.
What is the significance of the industriousness trait in relation to IQ, according to the video?
-Industriousness is significant because it is as potent a predictor as IQ, yet the exact nature of what makes people industrious remains unknown and is a subject of ongoing research.
How does the video relate the size of a person's head or brain to their IQ?
-The video suggests that people with higher IQs tend to have slightly bigger heads and brains when controlled for body size, and their neuronal axons are thicker, potentially allowing for more efficient electrical message transmission.
What physiological differences are associated with higher IQs in terms of simple reflexes?
-Higher IQs are associated with speed in simple reflex tests, indicating that even at a basic processing level, there is a physiological component to intelligence.
How does the video connect high IQ with the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease?
-The video suggests that individuals with high IQs are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, possibly due to a more robust brain that can sustain damage without showing significant effects.
What historical perspective does the video provide on the relationship between nutrition and IQ?
-The video indicates that 150 years ago, people's IQ was closely associated with their nutritional status, but modern societies have reduced this association due to improved nutrition availability.
Outlines
🧠 High IQ and Its Impact on Life Outcomes
In this segment, Dr. Jordan Peterson discusses the significant effects of having a high IQ. He explains that an IQ score is a strong predictor of various life outcomes, including health, longevity, resistance to post-traumatic stress disorder, occupational status, educational success, and income. Peterson illustrates this by comparing the long-term benefits of being born into a wealthy family versus having a high IQ, concluding that the latter is a more powerful determinant of life success. He also touches on the relationship between IQ and physiological aspects such as brain size, neuron axon thickness, and reflex speed, suggesting a correlation between high IQ and a more efficient brain function. Furthermore, he mentions the lack of correlation between IQ and industriousness, which is a mystery that researchers have yet to solve.
🌱 Nutrition's Role in IQ Variation
The second paragraph delves into the influence of nutrition on IQ variability. Dr. Peterson points out that nutrition was once a major factor affecting IQ levels, with historical data showing a strong association between the two. However, in modern societies, especially in North America, the direct link between nutrition and IQ has been diminished due to the general availability of food, despite variations in diet quality. This has reduced the cultural differences in intelligence that were once prevalent, indicating that while nutrition still plays a part, its impact on IQ is less pronounced in societies where basic dietary needs are met.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡IQ
💡Predictor
💡Longevity
💡Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
💡Occupational status
💡Educational success
💡Income
💡Disgust sensitivity
💡Conscientiousness
💡Industriousness
💡Alzheimer's disease
💡Nutrition
Highlights
IQ is a strong predictor of health, longevity, resistance to post-traumatic stress disorder, occupational status, educational success, and income.
Being born with a high IQ is more advantageous than being born into wealth, as it is a more powerful predictor of long-term life outcomes.
Intelligent people are less sensitive to disgust, possibly due to a stronger cortex's inhibitory control over emotions and motivations.
High IQ individuals may have a physiological basis for their intelligence, such as thicker axons for more efficient neural communication.
There is no clear correlation between IQ and industriousness, suggesting that the ability to engage in long-term planning is not solely an intelligence factor.
Industriousness is as potent a predictor as IQ, but its underlying mechanism remains a mystery.
People with higher IQs tend to have slightly larger heads and brains, adjusted for body size.
High IQ is associated with faster simple reflexes, indicating a physiological component to intelligence.
Individuals with a high IQ are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, potentially due to a more robust brain.
Nutrition plays a significant role in IQ variation, with historical associations between IQ and nutritional status.
Modern societies have reduced the cultural variability in intelligence due to improved nutrition.
The relationship between IQ and personality disorders is complex, as high IQ does not necessarily prevent impulsive or disorganized behavior.
IQ tests, such as counting letters in a string of text, are fundamentally associated with intelligence and the manipulation of abstractions.
High IQ individuals may have a more efficient brain, capable of sustaining significant damage without noticeable effects.
The video discusses the difficulty in understanding the relationship between cognitive features like the ability to not procrastinate and industriousness.
Dr. Jordan Peterson invites ideas and research on the mystery of what makes people industrious, as it has been a long-standing challenge in the field.
Transcripts
in this video Dr Jordan Peterson
explains what are the results of having
a high IQ and how to know if you have a
high IQ an IQ is a very good predictor
of Health it's a predictor of longevity
it's a predictor of resistance to
post-traumatic stress disorder it's a
predictor of obviously occupational
status it's a predictor of educational
success that's a predictor of income
it's very powerful predictive and
here's another
way of conceptualizing its effect so
imagine that you could choose
how you were going to be when you were
born this is in North America because
it's going to vary by Society at least
to some degree you get to be born into a
family that's at the 95th percentile for
wealth or you get to be born at the 95th
percentile for intelligence
who's better off at the age of 40. and
the answer is the person who picks being
born with an IQ in the 95th percentile
at Birth it's more powerful predictor of
long-term life outcome than familial
wealth
so
and it shows up everywhere like one of
the things we did recently was look at
disgust sensitivity we're going to talk
a little bit about that when we talk
about conscientiousness because orderly
people seem to be more sensitive to
disgust than disorderly people that
seems to be why they're orderly
but the higher you are in IQ the less
discussed sensitive you are
now we don't know exactly why that is
maybe it's because you know maybe you
could make the inference that IQ is is
in related in some way to the
physiological Integrity of the cortex
you know rather than the limbic system
which you know is the source of say
emotions and motivations
um and the the more powerful it is the
more inhibitory capacity it has over the
more fundamental motivations and
emotions you could make that case the
problem is is that in intelligent people
don't necessarily seem to be any less
impulsive
so
and you can have a pretty vicious
personality disorder that's
characterized by extremely disorganized
behavior and a complete inability to put
long-term plans into operation and still
have a high IQ
so
what are the things we really can't
figure out it's just a hell of a thing
to try to figure out is like the
relationship between IQ and
industriousness is zero
and that just makes no sense to me
because most of the brain models are
predicated on the idea that your ability
to engage in long-term planning
is a factor that's associated with
intelligence
but then industrious people seem to not
only engage in long-term planning they
seem to do it right so that if they're
more industrious they put their plans
into operation then the plans actually
work
but it's not correlated with IQ
so that then I can't figure out well
obviously the industrious person in some
way is able to regulate their own
behavior you know they're not
procrastinating for example and you'd
think that that the ability to not
procrastinate would be a cognitive
feature but it doesn't seem to be and we
have no idea what makes people
industrious and we can't figure it out
so it's this incredibly potent predictor
it's just about as powerful as IQ and we
have no idea
what it is
so
so if you you know if you think if you
have a smart idea about that and you
want to pursue it like feel free because
there's a big mystery there that no
one's been able to crack and we've been
at it for a long time and have had
almost no success you know we had people
do things like we give them sentences of
ends M's and U's sort of randomly
distributed and then we'd have them
count the U's you know like a whole page
of sentences
they're not sentences they're just
strings of letter count the U's how
useless you know you think that someone
industrious would do that better it's
like they don't that's an IQ test
the people who can count the use faster
have higher IQs almost everything that
you would do that would
where it has to do with manipulation of
abstractions of any sort even something
that basic seems to be fundamentally
associated with IQ
people with higher IQs have slightly
bigger heads if you control for body
size they have slightly bigger brains if
you control for body size the axons on
their neurons are a bit thicker so the
the electrical messages seem to travel a
little bit more efficiency efficiently
they are slightly faster in simple
reflex tests so it goes right down to
the level of because they're simple
reflex light goes on push a button
there's not many neurons mediating that
response you know chains of neurons
there's only a few neurons communicating
so that you can do that but even if that
relatively simple processing level
IQ is associated with speed so there's a
physiological component you're less
likely to develop Alzheimer's disease if
you have a high IQ and maybe that's
because your brain is just more robust
you know so you could sustain damage say
of up to 50 percent of your brain and
you wouldn't even show it if you're if
you have a sufficiently high IQ whereas
if you're you know if you're on the
bottom end of the IQ distribution you're
much more you seem to be much more
susceptible to to physiological damage
nutrition is a big predictor of IQ
variation
so and a lot of that's been hammered out
of modern societies you know so 150
years ago people's IQ was pretty tightly
associated with their nutritional status
but now you know there are very few
people in North America who don't have
enough to eat even though there's some
variation in quality of diet and that's
flattened out a lot of the
uh cultural variability and intelligence
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