source: Scientific American
A detailed study of 7,000-plus Americans followed since their teen years in the late 1970s reveals that intelligence provides more earning power but not necessarily more accumulated wealth.
“The smarter you are, the more income you have,” explains economist Jay Zagorsky of Ohio State University, who analyzed the data. “For wealth, there is no relationship.”
Many studies were carried out, in the final result, Intelligence resulted in more income (i.e. a higher salary) but not a higher wealth when all the dust had settled.
“There are some very smart people who get into financial difficulties,” Zagorsky notes. “Even smart people don’t save.”
When there were controlled variables for race,education and job status, the result remained very similar, if not the same.
For each IQ point, there was a rise in income of between $202 and $616 annually. (For example, a person with an IQ of 130 earns between $6,000 and $18,500 more per year than a peer of lesser intelligence.) But this higher yearly income did not translate into higher wealth. In fact, people with slightly above average intelligence (105 IQ score) had an average net worth higher than those just a bit smarter (110 IQ). “There are some very smart people who get into financial difficulties,” Zagorsky notes. “Even smart people don’t save.”
This stands against everything we’ve ever been taught? It seems that if you have a slightly lower IQ, you are more likely to have a higher net worth. Looks like being slightly behind is actually an advantage!
For the full story: Scientific American
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