Curiosity vs. Intelligence
US colleges use the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to capture the necessary abilities of applicants for admission purposes. These tests show our learning and complicated information processing abilities. For example, if you want to study courses like computer science or law, higher intelligence is an advantage since you will learn and apply abstract or complex ideas. But other vital skills, like practical problem solving and creativity, are discarded as irrelevant.
But we can’t entirely rely on the test results without considering the changes in behavior and performance that aren’t included in the results. In various fields, we have seen regular folks that do way better than people with high IQ scores.
Our non-verbal reasoning has improved massively, but skills like navigation that are not measured in IQ tests have deteriorated; it seems we have only developed specific skills that will boost our abstract reasoning. General intelligence tests are just one aspect of our mental machinery that controls analyzing and absorbing complex theoretical information. We need to find a way to incorporate other elements that are not mainly related to IQ.
We can get compelling results by improving our reflective skills and merging them with other principles of evidence-based wisdom
Wiser participants are more capable of thinking around problems, regardless of their intelligence. A comparison of the participants’ thinking to the various measures of wellbeing confirmed people who are more thoughtful do better in life, are happier in relationships and are less prone to depression. Therefore, qualities like intellectual humility and the ability to understand the perspective of others might reveal more about your wellbeing than your actual intelligence.
The truth is intelligence is not a definite indicator of strong mental prowess. While there is no doubt that intelligence can help you learn, process, and assimilate complex information effectively, it is also essential that you don’t just blindly rely on your brainpower. Smart people are in danger of falling into the “intelligence trap” because the more intelligent we become, the more biased we tend to be in our thinking.
To apply our intelligence rationally, we need to avoid allowing our gut feelings and emotions to control our actions. Most intelligent and educated people cannot use self-reflection to deduce signals and determine cues that might lead them astray. They justify grave judgments with knowledge and intelligence.
To speed up the learning process, one can practice mindful meditation — training the mind to pay attention to the sensations in your body and reflect on them without judgment. Doing this can help to de-bias our decision-making and improve our intuitive instincts.
We get caught in the intelligence trap when it is hard to think past our readily accessible feelings and ideas. So, we need to step into a vision that differs from the world around us.
Modern psychologists have discovered that curiosity is way more essential to development than general intelligence
A boy named Richard Feynman was fiddling with things in his home lab in New York. He was above average, but his IQ of 125 was way below that of Termites in California, so he never got within the radar of Terman. He was fond of building projects and doing experiments, even though most experiments often fell short of his plans. Richard once set fire to his waste bin while trying to poke holes in a paper with sparks from an ignition coil.
Richard Feynman kept learning and stretching his mind with math exercises. He went on to complete his degree at MIT. He transformed the field of quantum electrodynamics and is known as one of the most popular physicists of the 20th century. His persistent, analytical mind made him learn and apply himself to various fields like art, genetics, foreign languages, etc.
Psychological studies on personal development and learning have begun to observe a surprising merge with the theory of evidence-based wisdom. These studies found that mental habits and cognitive qualities might determine if we can flourish like Feynman.
Stretching our minds will improve learning, maximize potential in the face of new challenges and provide solutions to our one-sided thinking and mental laziness, all of which add to the intelligence trap.
Curiosity trumps general intelligence when it comes to our development throughout childhood, adolescence, and beyond
According to child psychologists, the ‘need to know more’ attitude is a basic innate hunger or drive. We know that curiosity is crucial to our first stage of development, but we don’t know more than that due to practical difficulties; no specific standardized tests exist for this age group, so psychologists have to focus on unrelated indicators. So, to observe curiosity in kids, one can study their number of questions, how they interact with the environment and their toys. However, in adults, one can use behavioral tests or self-reported questionnaires.
Brain scans showed that curiosity, which is a sort of lust or hunger, leads to activating a network called “dopaminergic system.” The neurotransmitter dopamine is responsible for our desire for sex, drugs, or food. It also reinforces long term-memory storage in the hippocampus, which is why curious people feel motivated to learn and remember more. Curiosity doesn’t seem to have killed the cat. Instead, being curious opens our minds to learning and better understanding.
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