I’ve never met a funny person who wasn’t smart. I’ve met a lot of dramatic people who were stupid. But I’ve never met a funny person who wasn’t smart. —Rob Lowe
Is it possible that one of the prerequisites for being smart is to be a bit anti-social?
Being smart, being that person in the room who can disassemble populist theories, or explain the trivialities of menu ingredients, or make jokes based on the periodic table of elements, does not always endear one to everyone else. What we claim to be a “war on intelligence” is actually an eons-old response that goes back at least as far as the ancient Greeks. Being the smart person in the room has a way of making everyone else in the room uncomfortable.
Actually, those with above-average intelligence are not  especially comfortable with the room, either. We all had a good laugh when an article relating foul language with intelligence hit the Internet. The article has been shared thousands of times and has over a million views. Everyone for whom the word “fuck” is a standard part of their vocabulary pointed to the article as evidence that they might be smarter than they typically appear.
Closer inspection, however, which is the first response of those who really are intelligent, reveals that vocabulary is just one of multiple anti-social characteristics that are common among those who are smarter than the average bipedal beast. There are reasons that what might be considered normal society tries to keep its distance, both literally and metaphorically, from smart people.
Freaks By Any Other Name
Additional research has been published recently to show that those who are more academic and scholarly in both occupation and lifestyle hold different perspectives from the rest of society. They don’t see themselves with any nationalistic connection, but citizens of the world. The smartest among us exist on the fringes if not completely external to society. Misunderstandings flowing in both directions is inevitable.
One example of such misunderstanding is a pseudo-intellectual article by Michael Lind that refers to intellectuals as freaks. Lind blasts the “ivory tower” concept of professional thinkers and university academics as being totally out of touch with mainstream society. He decries, without actual supporting evidence, those superficial elements such as being both single and childless, living in a metropolitan area (because that’s where universities are found), having a world view rather than being nationalistic, and social isolation as “particularly stupid and lazy.” He even goes on to say:
Successful intellectuals get where they are by being good at taking tests and by going to good schools. It is only natural for them to generalize from their own highly atypical life experiences and propose that society would be better off if everyone went to college….
Again, Lind makes these accusations based solely on observational anecdotes rather than any genuine research, so one cannot attribute any validity to the statements. However, that his views are reflective of a larger part of society is, and should be, disturbing.
Don’t Get Around Much Any More
Another recent headline screamed, “Research suggests being lazy is a sign of high intelligence.” Slackers the world over are now sharing this article, which they’ve not read, in an effort to support their sedentary lifestyle. “Look Ma! I is smart!” seems to be the general response. At least this article comes equipped with something resembling research. The headline is horribly misleading, though.
What the study, published in the Journal of Health Psychology, actually shows is that “thinkers” are more sedentary than “non-thinkers.” Personally, I was rather offended that the article would equate one whose work does not require a lot of physical movement with being lazy. I think I work damn hard most days, but most of that effort comes with my butt firmly implanted in this office chair. The lack of movement is not lazy as much as it is practical.
Other flaws in the study include the rather unscientific way in which participants were separated between “thinkers” and “non-thinkers” and the inability to explain how activity levels between the two groups were identical on the weekends. Based on this study, Â the headline could have just as easily read, “Dumb people are easily bored.” Anyone who looks at this research as anything approaching conclusive is off their fucking rocker.
About That Cursing Problem
I can still hear my late mother admonishing me after I had dared to use the word “dang” in her presence. “Smart people don’t have to curse,” she said, “because they are intelligent enough to use more appropriate words.” In fact, I’m rather sure Mother would have argued with that article everyone has been sharing. Polite society doesn’t like language that is aggressive and sharp and potentially offensive. Cursing isn’t civil.
Of all the garbage running around, though, the research around the use of “taboo” words is rather solid. Here’s what they found:
[Multiple testing] formats produced positive correlations between COWAT fluency, animal fluency, and taboo word fluency, supporting the fluency-is-fluency hypothesis. In each study, a set of 10 taboo words accounted for 55–60% of all taboo word data. Expressives were generated at higher rates than slurs. There was little sex-related variability in taboo word generation, and, consistent with findings that do not show a sex difference in taboo lexicon size, no overall sex difference in taboo word generation was obtained. Taboo fluency was positively correlated with the Big Five personality traits neuroticism and openness and negatively correlated with agreeableness and conscientiousness.
 The actual study is a pretty heavy read but what it shows is that both men and women curse equally and that, in addition to scoring higher in IQ tests, those with expressive vocabularies also tend to be neurotic as hell, argumentative (because they know this shit and you’re fucking wrong you fucking moron), and lacking in areas of social sensitivity. Sound like anyone you know?
For Extra Credit: You’re Messy and Don’t Sleep
While everyone focuses on the cursing aspect of the Business Insider article, there’s also reasonable mention of additional studies that show smart people have messy desks and fucked up sleeping patterns. I’m sure the researchers would want me to point out that there are  positive benefits to having a clean desk as well, though, personally, I have absolutely no experience with that particular phenomenon. I swear my desk clutters itself in my sleep.
Here’s the thing: neither cursing nor desk conditions nor amount of physical movement actually makes a person smart. Some people are able to obtain and retain large amounts of information and make right-brained connections within those information groups that others are not capable of doing. The determining factor in whether one has that capability is biological. While studies may draw correlations between certain habits and activities among a percentage within a select study group, none of them prove that to be smart one has to curse or be sedate or sleep at odd times.
There are no shortcuts to being smart. One has to study. One’s left brain has to take in copious amounts of information so that one’s right brain can use that information to make connections that result in invention and problem solving and creativity. Without all the hard work and study, one is just as stupid as any other presidential candidate. There’s no substitute.
Now, get busy and do something with your day.
Smart or Stupid, Is That A Question?
I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues. —Franklin D. Roosevelt
Is there a problem with being smart or are we trying to justify stupid?
Americans, apparently more than any other country, have an obsession with being smart. We heap praises on those who demonstrate intelligence beyond the norm and we get upset when we realize that our educational system is producing graduates who can only read at a fifth-grade level. Even our television viewing skews toward characters we perceive as smart. Programs such as Scorpion and Elementary (based on the character of Sherlock Holmes), consistently generate high ratings. We even like our comedy smart. The highest rated sitcom, for multiple seasons, is The Big Bang Theory, where we watch allegedly intelligent scientist bumble their way through life. One of the reasons we like that show is because it delivers lines like these:
The bluntness of the exchange makes us laugh, but at the same time, we recognize the intelligence of Sheldon’s response and consider ourselves smart when we use that line on someone else the next day. We like being smart. Although, perhaps more correctly, we like thinking that we’re smart. Many of us are lacking in cognitive skills. The intelligence of television characters doesn’t rub off and make us smarter. Some people are stupid.
We Have A Problem
Once upon a time, the rate of acceleration in IQ among high school graduates was pretty impressive. Psychologist James Flynn found that from 1932 to 1978, IQ scores in the US increased by 13.8 percent. Putting that in other terms, a score that was average in 1932 would be in the bottom 20% in 1978. Yay us! I’m in that 1978 group. We’re smart!
Unfortunately, that trend failed to continue. Just because we give allegiance to intelligence doesn’t mean we’re all doing well in the brain category. Measurements are tough to come by and even more difficult to verify, but that are glimpses of where we stand. Consider that the College Board, the entity that administers the SAT, considers a score of 500 as a benchmark for who will do well in college. Not everyone takes the SAT, but if we look at states where the test is free and participation over 90 percent, we find that only 33 to 40 percent scored above that benchmark.
An article published this month in The Atlantic, while trying very hard to convince us that there is an unfair war on stupidity, admits that:
… less intelligent people are more likely to suffer from some types of mental illness, become obese, develop heart disease, experience permanent brain damage from a traumatic injury, and end up in prison, where they are more likely than other inmates to be drawn to violence. They’re also likely to die sooner.
Being Smart Isn’t Easy
I was amused by Jeffrey Zacks’ essay published on aeon disproving brain-training games and exploring how difficult it is to expand our level of intelligence. His list of things that are marketed as improving our intelligence, such as programs offered by Lumosity, which rocketed to a high of 50 million users, and PositScience, which isn’t quite as popular but uses a similar methodology, is long. He makes a very good case against brain-training, especially.
One of the general issues with many of the concepts that are supposed to help us improve our brains is that they only focus on one particular segment, usually related to memory. For example, does anyone else remember those little plastic games with the tiles that moved around to create a picture, or put numbers in order? Those little devils actually help advance our cognitive ability, but only in the area of recognizing patterns. Likewise, those tricks for helping remember people’s names do improve some memory skills, but only in terms of memorizing lists. The effects are not transferable.
While we think of Adderall and Ritalin as being primarily used with children who have attention deficit issues, there is evidence of them improving the cognitive ability in normal adults as well. This area of study might actually be promising accept for the fact that the effects are short term. They give a momentary boost of cognitive enhancement, but then it stops as the drug wears off and over time the “crash” goes below the starting baseline. Users are trading a moment of lessened ability for a moment of enhanced performance. Oh, and the drug that works best? Nicotine. Go figure.
Solutions Are Available
Strip away the biases of both articles, and what we find are solutions that can make us all smarter and reduce the rate of stupidity (yes, I’m using the word) that seems to be prevalent over a frightening number of people. We simply cannot excuse the growing trend among those whose cognitive abilities are diminished to demonize those who are smart. Atul Gawande, in his commencement address to the California Institute of Technology, made an interesting conclusion after talking about the growing distrust of science:
Even more than what you think, how you think matters. The stakes for understanding this could not be higher than they are today, because we are not just battling for what it means to be scientists. We are battling for what it means to be citizens.
Indeed, we need to be smart and that means we need to do the things that not only make us smarter, but put us back on track toward making our children and grandchildren smarter as well. Top priorities must be decreasing poverty and improving the quality and availability of early childhood education. One of our most stupid moves comes when we oppose funding that can solve both those problems. At the same time, nutrition and exercise, especially cardiovascular activities such as swimming, biking, and walking,  are among the best ways to not only increase cognitive ability but prevent its decline as we get older. We have options.
Is This Really A Choice?
One thing for certain is that I’m not going to stop calling out those actions that are stupid. Perhaps we do need to be more careful in clarifying that, generally speaking, it is one’s actions and not the specific individual who is stupid. At the same time, though, we must realize that we are not nearly as smart as we like to think. We could be much smarter, even if we’re older and out of school. Our future depends on increasing our country’s overall intelligence so that we don’t do something incredibly stupid like nominating a bigoted, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, reality television host for president.
Oops, it may already be too late.
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