Intelligence vs Rationality

[Retired]

There was a recent interview with Maggie Toplak a psychologist from York University on the Agenda discussing the question: Do intelligence and rationality go hand in hand?

I was fascinated by research being done on why some really smart people do some really dumb things. It seems that IQ tests do not predict how well a person will be able to make rational decisions or to have street smarts.

How can the average person determine their Rationality Quotient, and how can one improve on the way they make rational decisions?

 

[Murray]

It is funny. I have always heard that IQ and street smarts usually do NOT go hand in hand. One example, my dad was very intelligent, but NO common sense. Very interesting.

 

[forgetmenot]

Very interesting really You would think someone with high intelligence could rationalize things out better

 

[Daniel E.]

It seems that IQ tests do not predict how well a person will be able to make rational decisions or to have street smarts.

OTOH, a University of Florida study (Brains come before beauty) showed that intelligence was a better predictor of career/financial success than anything else they measured. To create and maintain such success, a certain degree of rationality is required.

 

[Retired]

To create and maintain such success, a certain degree of rationality is required.

I would say, as a sideline observer, that rationality is everything in creating and maintaining success. Poor decisions are the surest way to "blow the bundle".

 

[Daniel E.]

To your first point:

In the end, it remains quite obvious that raw intellect is not necessarily worth as much as some give it credit for. Intelligence is not a substitute for good judgment. Practical wisdom does not follow from the conferring of a degree. My gardener tells me things that make sense that I would never have figured out on my own. The guys who were described as "the smartest guys in the room" are the same ones who brought down the Enron Corporation. Great political failures have been perpetrated by those who were chosen because they were the "best and the brightest." The "absent minded professor" is a well-known stereotype.

http://forum.psychlinks.ca/psycholo...emotional-intelligence-im-not-feeling-it.html

 

[Daniel E.]

A similar point:

"The IQ test was invented to predict academic performance, nothing else. If we wanted something that would predict life success, we'd have to invent another test completely." ~ Robert Zajonc

BTW, another thing about intelligence is that it is not static:

Recent behavioral research has show that intensive training with adults can increase IQ-type scores.

http://forum.psychlinks.ca/psycholo...and-what-they-may-say-about-intelligence.html