The disadvantage of smarts

The Economist interviews Satoshi Kanazawa:

So intelligent people do not behave better than less intelligent people?

No, sometimes they do stupid things. What intelligent people prefer is not good or bad, right or wrong, but it is always evolutionarily novel. More intelligent boys (but not more intelligent girls) are more likely to grow up to value sexual exclusivity. This is because humans are naturally polygynous. Sexual exclusivity is evolutionarily novel for men but not for women, so more intelligent men are more likely to value sexual exclusivity than less intelligent men. There is also some evidence that intelligent people are more likely to be vegetarians, because humans are evolutionarily designed to be omnivorous.

Criminals on average have lower intelligence than law-abiding citizens. Firstly, most behaviours designated as crimes are just natural means of competition that men have engaged in throughout evolutionary history. Secondly, institutions and technologies that control criminal behaviour today--CCTV cameras, police, court, prison--are all evolutionarily novel, so less intelligent men are less likely truly to comprehend such entities.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 23, 2012 3:01 AM
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