Psychology Wiki

Assessment | Biopsychology | Comparative | Cognitive | Developmental | Language | Individual differences | Personality | Philosophy | Social |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |

Social psychology: Altruism · Attribution · Attitudes · Conformity · Discrimination · Groups · Interpersonal relations · Obedience · Prejudice · Norms · Perception · Index · Outline


Edited by 'about 140 and 51'. In many cultures, including the United States, it is often perceievd there is a correlation between intelligence and social difficulties. While actual mental deficiency quite clearly interferes with social function, and there is little debate about how that comes about, this article specifically intends to discuss the linkage between high intelligence and social isolation. Some high IQ are frustrated by society, and most people, except people that treat high IQ with similar regard to others, and don't quickly assume they are arrogant.  

This supposed linkage is seen in folklore in, for example, the character of the socially-inept genius in popular culture. This deficiency can range from harmless and endearing (see: nerd) to outright devastating, both in media and real life. 'Folklore' is making creative assumptions. The experience of High IQ can only be understood best by high IQ. High IQ makes many observations about intellectual and social problems, and these observations are dismissed as 'arrogant'. Most high IQ are not arrogant when they also possess even average EQ. In fact they often feel compelled to plea for understanding that they are not arrogant. How can someone who percieves more accurately describe unseen and important things to others, when the other  judge them as arrogant, in posessing no rare insights?,.. and they are incapable of knowing what higher IQ looks like, by definition? Stop, just stop, for a second and ask yourself, if I met a high IQ on the street, how could I know? It's not from the books they read or the things they did or who they know. Normal IQs simply have almost no ability socially to discern arrogant from intelligent. Important, or at least interesting ideas are dismissed with attitudes like 'that's just the way things are' or 'don't make waves'. 'there's no time for that'. Brights are less likely to be confrontational, and much more likely to disagree. Those are not the same thing. 

While intelligence and social ability are notoriously difficult to test and measure, it is generally believed that modestly above-average intelligence (1 to 2 standard deviations above the mean) correlates upward with social ability. In American high schools, for example, highly-active honors students have been shown to be quite popular in most cases. 

Not all highly intelligent people should be considered socially bewildered, nor should all socially exceptional people be considered highly intelligent. 

In his 1995 book Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman presents a foundation for emotional intelligence, measured by EQ, as an additional dimension of "intelligence" (see: multiple intelligence) in which individuals' empathy and social skills are personal traits comparable to "intelligence". Whether it is possible for a person to possess intelligence of all sorts (intellectual, interpersonal, intrapersonal, kinesthetic, etc.)edit: Intelligence seems to be mostly interelated, not discrete. Intelligence informs self-awareness, social awareness, but not always any faster than others.  Less mature individuals with high IQ will have more difficulties.  We are collectively unaware of the profound negative impact on our perceptions caused by an irrational language.  Some pose that there are inherent trade-offs between the different manifestations of intelligence. That does not seem accurate. 

Possible causes of the connection[]

The cause of such a connection or trade-off between intellectual and social interest is unknown, but many hypotheses exist:

  • Intelligent people are more likely to exhibit nonconformist or even anticonformist attitudes edit:confirmed. and are also less likely to avoid conflict  While these traits often make people highly respected, they do not represent good social skills.edit; the term 'good' is vague,  and creates innaccurate perceptions.
  • Intelligent people may be more likely to be arrogant because of their abilities. edit. misleading and unjustified. Definition: "having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities". The perception of arrogance in IQ is not mostly due to this. It's mostly due to others assuming they are dealing with the large population under the bell. Because brights are rare, others are usually correct in assuming arrogance in most people. The problem is, when dealing with true brights, they will seem similar to others who are arrogant. 'How can you know this? 'nobody else does, you must be arrogant for saying you know what's going on!'  
     
  • Self-confidence of so-called "intelligent" people may be misinterpreted or resented.
  • The esoteric interests of intelligent people may be regarded by others as strange or abnormal.
    There may be an inherent genetic (or systemic) trade-off between social ability and intelligence.
    "ability" is not the same as "finding ease in interaction".
  • Individuals who spend their time on intellectual pursuits like chess, mathematics, and literature may be less likely to be engaged in group activities that improve social skills. Highly intelligent individuals may be raised to be more individualistic than others, therefore would have less social experience.
  • Highly intelligent individuals may be traumatized, envied for their intellectual gifts, during childhood and thus resented by their peers. Brights might be teased and surely misunderstood. In childhood they may be unware of how to relate, they see 'through' things, and can't understand why everyone else doesn't. It's hard for a child to live that reality. And they are still just kids anyway. Expecting them to see how all this works is ridiculous. It's just confusing for them, and they don't have fully formed overall perceptions, and not necessarily any more EQ than the next, just higher raw IQ. Imagine taking an average IQ and giving it high IQ (added perception), they would feel and act the same way. More than others, the feeling of being in a chaotic, unstructed, immoral world the too few seem to understand or care about,  ways upon them.  Of course that feeling happens in all us, but more in brights.


This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).