Is there a positive correlation between IQ and a range of behaviors that some might think could be positively related to IQ?

Note: This is a section of a longer article. To go to the start, click here.

We have asked participants (n = 692) to report on 35 diverse behaviors that some might think higher IQ people could exhibit more often than lower IQ people . We show the correlations (together with their 95% confidence intervals) between IQ and each of these self-reported behaviors in the forest plot below:

Note that not all correlations were positive. There were negative correlations between IQ and self-reported delayed gratification (i.e., Finding it easy to do useful things one doesn't really like) and having fast reflexes. Although these two negative correlations are perhaps not so surprising, we were surprised to see that those more intelligent were less likely to say that they could figure out solutions for society's big problems, or that they would enjoy writing an essay about their own ideas.  

Two highest positive correlations were enjoying riddles and puzzles and using keyboard shortcuts, followed by finding math easy and then a bunch of behaviors related to enjoying learning new things and solving problems.

Takeaways

• IQ is generally positively correlated to a variety of different self-reported behaviors that one might think could be associated with IQ, such as enjoying solving riddles/difficult puzzles, finding that math comes easy, and being interested in science, but there were a few surprising negative correlations as well, such as believing one could figure out solutions for society's big problems.  

If you'd like to read the full report, of which this is a section, as one long PDF, you can download it here.

And if you'd like to understand where your intellectual strengths and weaknesses lie, try the cognitive assessment tool that we developed out of this research:

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