Does Intelligence = Wealth?

May 6th, 2008

According to Jay Zagorsky’s study published in the journal Intelligence, it’s not likely.

Not only was there a little-to-insignificant correlation between higher earning and a higher I.Q, but there appears to be an increase in debt and bankruptcy among those with above average intelligence quotients. The finding comes as an interesting surprise in a culture where bespectacled Bill Gates is the supreme beacon of cash, and college = success.

The study is by no means conclusive, and my main beef with the outcome is the fact that all statistics were formed based on the use of Intelligence Quotient numbers (I.Q). More and more people are realizing that standardized tests fail to capture the true intelligence of many people who harbor smarts other than the bookish variety. Even the founder of the test, frenchman Alfred Binet , protests that the quiz does not adequately and permanently determine a person’s intelligence:

“The scale, properly speaking, does not permit the measure of intelligence, because intellectual qualities are not superposable, and therefore cannot be measured as linear surfaces are measured”

While the I.Q test attempts to fix a number to a thing that we have not yet been able to concretely measure, and may be perhaps the best resource for a study of this kind, it’s my suspicion that the I.Q test is outdated and in many cases unfair, as well as a poor reflection of actual intelligence in all people.

Maybe the measure of intelligence is the reason for the lack of correlation, not the actual smarts themselves? I wouldn’t doubt it.

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