Is there a difference between being smart and acting smart? |
Is there a difference between being smart and acting smart?
[Source Image: Adobe Stock]
BY Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Although intelligence is one of the most consistent and important predictors of real-life success, the connection is by no means perfect. This explains why we all know people who we consider “smart” in a traditional sense (e.g., knowledgeable, bookish, geeky, and mathematically sharp), but who seem to malfunction in everyday life. In fact, decades of scientific research show that intellectual and emotional intelligence are only marginally related, so the ability to function well in interpersonal or social situations is not necessarily a strength for individuals known for admirable mental horsepower or abstract reasoning capacity.
To be sure, there’s no shortage of fictional examples of high-IQ people who struggle with basic interpersonal challenges. For example, Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, Sherlock Holmes, and Mark Zuckerberg as portrayed in The Social Network all combine formidable intellectual ability with a striking inability to navigate ordinary human interactions. At times, this disconnect between highly advanced cognitive capabilities and relatively limited emotional or interpersonal skills is attributed to empathy deficits and neuroatypical patterns along the lines of Simon Baron-Cohen’s “spectrum” theory. This model postulates that some people, particularly those on the autism or Asperger syndrome spectrum, show stronger systemizing abilities alongside weaker empathizing abilities, potentially explaining this uneven cognitive-interpersonal profile. It should be noted, however, that the broader category of “neurodiversity”........