Summary

Intelligence and smartness, while highly valued, do not inherently lead to rational thinking or the ability to revise beliefs with new evidence, often reinforcing cognitive biases instead.

Abstract

The article discusses the paradoxical relationship between intelligence, smartness, and rational thinking. Despite society's high regard for intelligence and smart behavior, these traits do not guarantee objective assessment of evidence or the ability to change one's mind in light of new information. Instead, they can contribute to a range of cognitive biases. The article cites research indicating that higher IQ scores correlate with a greater likelihood of falling for stereotypes and struggling to update beliefs. It also notes that even highly intelligent individuals like Einstein and Edison were not immune to biases such as confirmation and desirability biases. The concept of "dysrationalia," a mismatch between intelligence and rationality, is introduced, along with the idea that experts can suffer from "earned dogmatism," leading them to dismiss alternative viewpoints. To counteract these tendencies, the article suggests adopting scientific thinking, which includes active open-mindedness and a willingness to revise opinions based on new evidence. It emphasizes the importance of intellectual humility and the need to continually reassess and relearn to avoid being trapped by our own cognitive fallacies.

Opinions

Intelligence and smartness are insufficient for rational decision-making and can lead to entrenched cognitive biases.
Higher IQ individuals may be more susceptible to stereotypes and less likely to change their beliefs when presented with new evidence.
Even renowned intellectuals like Einstein and Edison were not free from confirmation and desirability biases.
The IQ test does not measure rationality, leading to a phenomenon known as "dysrationalia."
Experts can fall prey to "earned dogmatism," causing them to ignore other perspectives.
Alternative intelligence theories, such as Sternberg's Triarchic Theory and Stanovich's Rationality Quotient (RQ), have not been widely accepted.
Scientific thinking, characterized by open-ended inquiry and active open-mindedness, is proposed as a way to overcome the intelligence trap.
Intellectual humility and the willingness to reassess one's knowledge are key to avoiding biased thinking.
Tools like Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit can help prevent falsehoods and biases from distorting our thinking.

How Intelligence and Smartness Trap Us in a Biased Mindset

Cultivate intellectual humility and open-mindedness

Intelligence and smartness are highly prized attributes in a knowledge-driven society. An intelligent mind has the ability to acquire and assimilate knowledge and apply it to innovate and solve problems.

Smartness is intelligent behaviour as opposed to unintelligent or stupid behaviour.

Do intelligence and smartness make us behave rationally by default or make us revise our beliefs in the face of new evidence? The answer is a resounding ‘No’.

Counterintuitively, intelligence and smartness trap us in various cognitive biases. What makes us score high in an IQ test or behave smartly reinforce our biases. This is an enduring paradox of the human condition.

In his book, “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know”, Adam Grant refers to research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology that established how higher your IQ score is, the more likely you are to fall for stereotypes.

The IQ tests focus on measuring numerical and abstract reasoning capabilities. The latter is about identifying patterns, which is an essential human skill. At the same time, pattern recognition skill turns into a cognitive fallacy instead of being a cognitive advantage.

Adam Grant also cites a paper published in Behavioural Public Policy that stated the smarter you are, the more you might struggle to update your beliefs.

Cognitive biases are thinking errors that prevent us from assessing data and other evidence objectively. Even those having high IQs like Albert Einstein and Edison could not overcome confirmation bias- seeing what we expect to see and desirability bias — seeing what we want to see.

Motivated reasoning also involves disconfirmation bias — the tendency to be especially sceptical about evidence that does not fit our goal.

Einstein opposed the quantum revolution after formulating his theory of relativity. Edison was fixated with Direct Current (DC) despite knowing its disadvantages.

Smart people also suffer from the “I am not biased” bias, which is being blind to one’s own fallacies while looking out to expose others’ wrong beliefs. This is also known as a bias blind spot.

The intelligence-rationality mismatch

The IQ test does not measure rationality. In his book, “The Intelligence Trap”, author David Robson refers to the mismatch between intelligence and rationality as “dysrationalia”.

He defines rationality as: “Our capacity to make the optimal decisions needed to meet our goals, given the resources we have to hand and to form beliefs based on evidence, logic and sound reasoning.”

Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the fictional Sherlock Holmes, believed in paranormal phenomena. He suffered from dysrationalia.

Experts also suffer from “earned dogmatism”- the belief that their expertise entitles them to be close-minded and ignore other viewpoints.

Alternatives to the IQ exist but have not received wider acceptance. Robert Sternberg of Cornell University proposed a Triarchic Theory of Successful Intelligence. This theory examined three types of intelligence- practical, analytical and creative.

Cognitive scientist Keith Stanovich proposed the Rationality Quotient(RQ).

These alternative theories remain on the margins of academic acceptability.

How to overcome the intelligence trap?

Adam Grant proposes that we should think like a scientist. Scientific thinking is open-ended. Scientists practise active open-mindedness. They seek to find out reasons why they could be wrong rather than establish why they are right. They revise their opinions when they discover new evidence.

Science explores ideas and avoids ideologies.

Intellectual humility will help us avoid biased thinking. The ability and willingness to revise our knowledge and relearn based on new evidence will help us avoid motivated reasoning.

Final thoughts

Intelligence alone is not enough to think and act rationally because our overconfidence about our knowledge and abilities traps us in various cognitive biases.

We don’t lack mental tools to prevent falsehood and bias from hijacking our thinking. For example, the late scientist, Carl Sagan, proposed a Baloney Detection Kit to prevent wrong beliefs, propaganda and other falsehoods from capturing our intelligence.

To align ourselves with emerging knowledge, we need to rethink and relearn to avoid getting trapped in our cognitive fallacies.

Thanks for reading.