Smarter People Live Longer
It's not fair, but it's true
This is the latest post in my “Smarter People” series. Click here for the full collection.
One of the biggest discoveries in intelligence research this century is also one of the most uncomfortable: People with higher IQs tend to live longer. And not just a little longer either. Across countries, cohorts, and methods, higher intelligence is associated with a substantially lower risk of death from most causes.
In this post, I’d like to share two graphs that make this relationship especially clear, then say something about why the relationship exists. The facts are striking. But the explanations are arguably even more so, because they get to the heart of how intelligence shapes people’s lives in the modern world.
The Facts
The first graph comes from a Danish study of more than 700,000 male conscripts. That number alone should make you sit up and pay attention: Studies of this size are rare, and they don’t leave much room for statistical flukes.