The Weird Things That Correlate With Intelligence
Note sull'episodio
Higher childhood cognitive scores have been linked to greater odds of later reporting use of some illegal drugs. Higher early-life scores have also predicted lower mortality. Why can both findings be true—and what would be wrong with combining them into a personality type?
Starting with the height–IQ question, this conversation explores brain volume, nearsightedness, curiosity, drug experimentation, longevity, vegetarianism, trust and an uncertain semen-quality finding. Small effects, imperfect labels and replication change the story.
This is a public science discussion, not a way to estimate anyone’s IQ. Associations do not establish causes. Sources were independently checked; synthetic dialogue was generated with NotebookLM and edited and reviewed for accuracy.
Sources
- Height: Beauchamp et al. (2011)
- Brain volume: Pietschnig et al. (2022)
- Myopia: Megreli et al. (2020)
- Personality: Anglim et al. (2022)
- Drug use: White, Gale & Batty (2012)
- Separate drug cohort: White & Batty (2012)
- Mortality review: Calvin et al. (2011)
- Vegetarianism: Gale et al. (2007)
- Trust: Sturgis, Read & Allum (2010)
- US vocabulary/trust: Carl & Billari (2014)
- Semen: Arden et al. (2009)
- Semen replication: DeLecce et al. (2020)