The ‘Intelligent’ Earn More, But Don’t Save More
A nationwide study conducted by Jay Zagorsky found no strong relationship between net wealth and IQ score.
The study is based on data from 7,403 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.
Participants completed the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), a general aptitude test, long used as a measure of intelligence.
All participants were also surveyed about their income, total wealth, and three measures of financial difficulty: if they currently have any maxed-out credit cards, if over the past five years they had any instances where they missed paying bills, and whether they ever declared bankruptcy.
The results confirmed research by other scholars that show people with higher IQ scores tend to earn higher incomes. In this study, each point increase in IQ scores was associated with $202 to $616 more income per year.
This means the average income difference between a person with an IQ score in the normal range (100) and someone in the top 2 percent of society (130) is currently between $6,000 and $18,500 a year.
But when it came to total wealth and the likelihood of financial difficulties, people of below average and average intelligence did just fine when compared with the super-intelligent — suggesting that high-IQ people are not saving as much as others.
The percentage of people who have maxed out their credit cards rises from 7.7 percent in those with an IQ of 75 and below to a peak of 12 percent among those with an IQ of 90. Then the percentage falls in an irregular pattern to 5.4 percent among those with an IQ of 115 before rising again.
“In these measures of financial difficulties, it seems that those of slightly better than average intelligence are best off,” Zagorsky said.
“You Don’t Have to be Smart to be Rich, Study Finds,” by Jeff Grabmeier