# What things in your experience are often, but poorly, correlated with intelligence? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 22, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892 "2022-05-22T19:48:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/21 "2022-05-22T20:57:49Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I hope it’s not off-topic to bring up this pet peeve. It’s a very common trope in TV & movies to signal that someone is extremely smart by having them state a numerical result or estimate to a ridiculously inapproprate level of precision. Another common TV/movie trope is to have someone smart do complex mathematical calculations in their head in seconds. I don’t know anyone in real life who can do this, ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/22 "2022-05-22T21:03:09Z")
Speaking “unaccented”/“broadcaster” English. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/23 "2022-05-22T21:03:17Z")
A Canadian airline, located in Quebec (and Québécois often value wine knowledge), served me a bottle of white wine with my economy class dinner. A bottle of _Eau de Vieux Chien_. I was amused. Quebeckers sometimes have a weird sense of humour, though. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/24 "2022-05-22T21:05:01Z")
I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/25 "2022-05-22T21:06:38Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > The archetype being Mr Spock - “Captain, I estimate the probability that we will evade the giant floating space head that we have never encountered before and know almost nothing about is 17.234 %.” It was also an indication that Spock was not human. The technique may have been used by robots or computers previously, it became a common Spock trait and spread widely from there. Pretty sure I’ve seen children do that on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/26 "2022-05-22T21:09:59Z")
You didn’t taste the wine. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/27 "2022-05-22T21:11:01Z")
The amusing corollary in that abstract - a _positive quadratic relationship_ between intelligence and measures for financial distress such as bankruptcy, trouble paying bills, maxing out credit cards. Arguably that doesn’t qualify for this thread because the correlation is too strong! It seems contrary to common sense, and I’m suspicious that they may not have controlled correctly for selection bias. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/28 "2022-05-22T21:15:45Z")
Every one of my friends is a reader. Indeed, reading books is a mark of intelligence. I was going to add- theatre instead of film. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/29 "2022-05-22T21:16:55Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > Big words or jargon. They just sound pretentious to me. It’s like, I know what a vagina actually is from a biological standpoint, but I also know what people mean when they use the word. No point in (heh!) splitting hairs. I used to work with someone who liked to make affectations that he was more well read and well spoken than he really was. He was actually laughed at behind his back by us all the time. His signature shtick was over-the-top wordiness, especially if he was on 2-way radio, usually delivered by punching his words in a dramatic way, like a dog barking, or a weather reporter live from the middle of a hurricane. - Instead of using the short hand technical acronyms, he’d say the whole term word for word - He would never use contractions, but rather say the words in a pretentious, kinda’ stilted way. “_I do not know why we have not…_” instead of “I don’t know why we haven’t…”. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/30 "2022-05-22T21:18:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Every one of my friends is a reader. Indeed, reading books is a mark of intelligence. Same here. I can’t really separate the two. I’m sure I’m wrong in some instances, but it does seem to correlate. (Still, I would separate highly intelligent from decent. Some of the most intelligent people I know are utter assholes.) ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/31 "2022-05-22T21:19:34Z")
You are awesome, BrickBat. And yeah, I’ve met the no contractions folk. Grrrr. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/32 "2022-05-22T21:20:34Z")
I’m not sure how smart that wino is, the one sitting on the curb drinking from a bottle of Thunderbird in a paper sack. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/33 "2022-05-22T21:21:49Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’m not sure how smart that wino is, the one sitting on the curb drinking from a bottle of Thunderbird in a paper sack.  He’s a poet of the people. Respect! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/34 "2022-05-22T21:53:47Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Wearing glasses. This is the first thing I thought of. It seems to be a common trope, especially in older pop culture (cartoons, etc.) that the character who wears glasses is the one who’s smart, cerebral, bookish, and physically uncoordinated and unathletic. Actually, there does seem to be some evidence of a correlation between intelligence and the need for glasses. > **[Wearing glasses may really mean you're smarter, major study finds](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/may/30/glasses-smarter-study-intelligence-bad-eyesight-link-health-benefits)** > > It’s not just a pop culture trope – a University of Edinburgh study has found intelligent people are 30% more likely to have genes related to poor eyesight ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/35 "2022-05-22T21:55:20Z")
Though the trope starts to fall apart with contact lenses and LASIK. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/36 "2022-05-22T21:58:27Z")
Yeah, I’ve always hate that she would be pretty except for the glasses thing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/37 "2022-05-22T22:13:10Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Another common TV/movie trope is to have someone smart do complex mathematical calculations in their head in seconds. I don’t know anyone in real life who can do this, Actually doing the calculations in seconds isn’t usually a smart thing. Estimating them, though, sometimes to quite good precision, can be. Feynman (undoubtedly very intelligent) used to brag that any math problem anyone could state in ten seconds or less, he could find the answer to within 10% in 30 seconds or less. (he was eventually stumped, though, by a guy who asked for “Tangent of ten to the hundredth”) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/38 "2022-05-22T22:28:22Z")
Seventy-four percent of Canadians require corrective vision. What can I say? We is a smrt peoples. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/39 "2022-05-22T23:15:56Z")
To go with tropes: - Few of the absent-minded professors I have personally had were of the highest caliber - Calculus is treated like arcane knowledge. I’m sure at least half of students take it. - Immortal characters know everything on TV. We don’t! - International Genius Symbol: Rubiks Cube. - Elite school? Elite brain! ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892/40 "2022-05-22T23:19:18Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Calculus is treated like arcane knowledge. I’m sure at least half of students take it. I did, but god help me, I didn’t understand a minute of it. > [@](#): > > Immortal characters know everything on TV. We don’t! Hey! Yeah, that’s always bugged me. Say that I went back in time to my high school years, I very much doubt that I’d remember exactly the dates of most future events (9/11 notwithstanding). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-in-your-experience-are-often-but-poorly-correlated-with-intelligence/964892.md?page=3)