Why g matters: The complexity of everyday life
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide evidence that intelligence has pervasive utility in work settings because it is essentially the ability to deal with cognitive complexity, in particular, with complex information processing, and the more complex a work task, the greater the advantages that higher g confers in performing it well.
About: This article is published in Intelligence.The article was published on 1997-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 1300 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Everyday life & Cognitive complexity.
Summary (1 min read)
Jump to: [Why g Matters: The Complexity of Everyday Life] – [WHAT DOES “IMPORTANT” MEAN?] – [INFLUENCE OF INTELLIGENCE ON OVERALL LIFE OUTCOMES] and [THE FUTURE]
Why g Matters: The Complexity of Everyday Life
- This article provides evidence that g has pervasive utility in work settings because it is essentially the ability to deal with cognitive complexity, in particular, with complex information processing.
- Few claims in the social sciences are backed by such massive evidence but remain so hotly contested in public discourse.
- Besides demonstrating that g is important in practical affairs, I seek to demonstrate why intelligence has such surprisingly pervasive importance in the lives of individuals.
- I then use both the employment and literacy data to sketch a portrait of life’s challenges and opportunities at different levels of intelligence.
WHAT DOES “IMPORTANT” MEAN?
- The nature of the job and its context seem to determine whether g has any direct effect on task proficiency, net of job knowlege.
- As is well known in psychometrics (see also Gordon, 1997), the fact that an individual passes or fails any single test item says little about that person’s general intelligence level.
INFLUENCE OF INTELLIGENCE ON OVERALL LIFE OUTCOMES
- The effects of intelligence-like other psychological traits-are probabilistic, not deterministic.
- White adults in this range marry, work, and have children (Hermstein & Murray, 1994), but, as Table 10 shows, they are nonetheless at great risk of living in poverty (30%), bearing children out of wedlock (32%), and becoming chronic welfare dependents (31%).
- At this IQ level, fewer than half the high school graduates and none of the dropouts meet the military’s minimum AFQT enlistment standards.
- Most occupations are within reach cognitively, because these individuals learn complex material fairly easily and independently.
- Such as divorce, illness, and occasional unemployment, they rarely become trapped in poverty or social pathology.
THE FUTURE
- Complexity enriches social and cultural life, but it also risks leaving some individuals behind.
- Society has become more complex-and g loaded-as the authors have entered the information age and postindustrial economy.
- Accordingly, organizations are “flatter” (have fewer hierarchical levels), and increasing numbers of jobs require high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills (Camevale, 1991; Cascio, 1995; Hunt, 1995; Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991).
- There is evidence that increasing proportions of individuals with below-average IQs are having trouble adapting to their increasingly complex modern life (Granat & Granat, 1978) and that social inequality along IQ lines is increasing (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994).
- As the military experience also illustrates, however, what is good pedagogy for the low-aptitude learner may be inappropriate for the high-aptitude person.
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TL;DR: The authors showed that the effect of large, persistent differences in national average IQ on the private marginal product of labor may be a driving force behind global income inequality, and proposed an IQ-augmented Ramsey model to explain more than half of the empirical relationship between national averageIQ and GDP per worker.
Abstract: I show that in a conventional Ramsey model, between one-fourth and one-half of the global income distribution can be explained by a single factor: The effect of large, persistent differences in national average IQ on the private marginal product of labor. Thus, differences in national average IQ may be a driving force behind global income inequality. These persistent differences in cognitive ability--which are well-supported in the psychology literature--are likely to be somewhat malleable through better health care, better education, and especially better nutrition in the world’s poorest countries. A simple calibration exercise in the spirit of Bils and Klenow (2000) and Castro (2005) is conducted. I show that an IQ-augmented Ramsey model can explain more than half of the empirical relationship between national average IQ and GDP per worker. I provide evidence that little of the IQ-productivity relationship is likely to be due to reverse causality.
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: The Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis, derived from the Savanna Principle and a theory of the evolution of general intelligence, suggests that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences (such as liberalism and atheism and, for men, sexual exclusivity) than less intelligent individuals, but that general intelligence may have no effect on the acquisition and espousal of evolutionarily familiar values.
Abstract: Summary. The origin of values and preferences is an unresolved theoretical question in behavioural and social sciences. The Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis, derived from the Savanna Principle and a theory of the evolution of general intelligence, suggests that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences (such as liberalism and atheism and, for men, sexual exclusivity) than less intelligent individuals, but that general intelligence may have no effect on the acquisition and espousal of evolutionarily familiar values. Macro-level analyses show that nations with higher average intelligence are more liberal (have greater highest marginal individual tax rate and, as a result, lower income inequality), less religious (a smaller proportion of the population believes in God or considers themselves religious) and more monogamous. The average intelligence of a population appears to be the strongest predictor of its level of liberalism, atheism and monogamy.
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...General intelligence refers to the ability to reason deductively or inductively, think abstractly, use analogies, synthesize information, and apply it to new domains (Neisser et al., 1996; Gottfredson, 1997 )....
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...General intelligence may have become universally important in modern life (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994; Gottfredson, 1997; Jensen, 1998) only because our current environment is almost entirely evolutionarily novel....
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TL;DR: In this paper , the importance of physical and psychological predictors of work sample performance within the Swedish police Counterterrorism Intervention Assessment and Selection (CTIAS) process (N = 160) was examined.
Abstract: This study examines the importance of physical and psychological predictors of work sample performance within the Swedish police Counterterrorism Intervention Assessment and Selection (CTIAS) process (N = 160). CTIAS consists of a 4-day prescreening (Phase 1) and a 10-day work sample test (Phase 2). Applicants may withdraw freely or be stopped by a CTIAS board (if they do not fulfill the CTIAS requirement criteria) at any moment throughout Phases 1 and 2. The dependent variable was applicants being approved at the end of CTIAS Phase 1. Biserial correlations were used to determine relationships between the predictors’ age, general mental ability, executive functions, personality, physical strength, coordination, running capacity and the dependent variable. Significant (p < 0.01) results in the biserial correlations were strength (r = 0.217), coordination (r = 0.223), and running capacity (r = 0.412). In conclusion, the logistic regression analysis with all predictors revealed that only running capacity (2800 meters) was significant for approval to CTIAS. Implications for the practical selection of CTIAS are discussed, and suggestions for future investigation are proposed. Public significance statement: The current study examined physical and psychological predictors in a selection process within a tactical unit in the Swedish Police Authority. Higher running capacity was the only predictor that increased the odds of approved applicants.
12 Aug 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, two studies were conducted with the aim of adapting and validating the grit-O scale to a Colombian context, as well as determining the Grit-S scale's criterion validity by means of academic performance in university students.
Abstract: One of the constructs that have been studied in recent years as predictors of academic performance is the grit factor. In the present research, two studies were conducted with the aim of adapting and validating the Grit-O scale to a Colombian context, as well as determining the Grit-S scale's criterion validity by means of academic performance in university students. In the first study (n=500), an exploratory factor analysis was performed using an Unweighted Least Squares Extraction Method and a confirmatory factor analysis through a maximum likelihood extraction method. The analysis yielded adequate validity and reliability indexes for the two scales (Grit-O and Grit-S) -Grit- S being the one with the best fit indexes-, and the distribution of items per scale factor coincided with the original validation. However, the two factors (perseverance of effort and consistency of interest) were not grouped under the grit construct. In the second study (n=89), the relationship between the score obtained on the Grit-S scale and different academic performance indicators (grade point average, number of failed subjects, among others) was observed. For this purpose, a correlation and multiple linear regression analysis was performed. Findings show moderatecorrelations between the Grit-S scale total score and its two components, with the measures of academic performance. In the regression analysis, the total score was found to be a better predictor of academic performance (0.016 **) than the score of each of the scale components separately. Finally, the discussion compares the findings with validations carried out in other countries and gives some recommendations regarding the use of the grit scale.
References
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