r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 20d ago

Neuroscience Twin study suggests rationality and intelligence share the same genetic roots - the study suggests that being irrational, or making illogical choices, might simply be another way of measuring lower intelligence.

https://www.psypost.org/twin-study-suggests-rationality-and-intelligence-share-the-same-genetic-roots/
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u/Sinai 20d ago

It doesn't take much reading between the lines to see that the author thought the very suggestion of general intelligence and rationality being anything but highly correlated was absurd, and did this study because of that.

“1) We found that irrationality, far from being what IQ tests miss, is one of the best IQ tests available. 2) We found that irrationality, far from being unrelated to genetics and more of a mindset, is among the most heritable of psychological traits. 3) Irrationality is making mistakes which are unnecessary: wrong decisions when we have all the information we need, and some simple logic means there is no reason for the error. We found that realizing what information is available, and applying some simple logic, is almost all of the cause of cognitive irrationality. 4) Cognitive ability explained nearly all of cognitive irrationality, and much of the overlap was genetic.”

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u/wilczek24 20d ago

Irrationality and lack of intelligence are very much not correlated. You do not get to claim to know the entire thought process that goes on behind a seemingly "irrational" decision.

Just reading the title of the post made me pretty sure that the author is exactly this type of person...

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u/ToWriteAMystery 20d ago

I mean, this study seems to show that it is

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u/wilczek24 20d ago

Sometimes, study results are biased because of the preconcieved notions of their authors. I suspect it might be one of those studies.

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u/ToWriteAMystery 20d ago

That’s a fair hypothesis; do we have any data to suggest this author has published biased research in the past?

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u/wilczek24 20d ago

Nope, it's just my personal opinion about the study, nothing more.