It is possible that the vast majority of us think that if a person is very intelligent, it will be much easier than another to climb the social ladder. The thought that academic and professional success is directly related to IQ is deeply rooted in society. However, recent scientific studies suggest that this belief is more myth than reality.
Intelligence, in and of itself, is unlikely to guarantee social success. This is revealed by a recent study in which, after analyzing the environment of thousands of people from different countries, it concludes that wealth or family socioeconomic status are more determining factors than a person’s own intelligence in climbing the social elevator.
A study published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) concluded that “genetics influences achievement directly through social mobility and indirectly through family environment.” In other words, family status influences the social class a person has as an adult. The researchers analyzed “associations between genetics linked to education and social mobility in more than 20,000 people” in the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Intelligence was found to be unrelated to economic or social success. Instead, they concluded that factors such as a family’s social class, education, and social relationships were much more important than IQ itself.
From this study, it is clear, therefore, that intelligence is not a significant predictor of social advancement. Factors such as wealth, parental socioeconomic status, and access to education are much more important in determining social success than IQ. “We found that the genetics measured were related to patterns of social achievement and mobility, partly through direct influences on individuals and partly through prediction of the environments in which they grew up,” they say. Thus, the genetics of the parents influence the environment in which their children are raised and, in turn, the environment in which the children have been raised determines what their social relationships will be like throughout their lives and how they rise in the classes. social.
