Intelligent people drink more alcohol

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Yes! Another excuse!!! We can do with a lot more of these!!!

Please, surely intelligent is knowing what alcohol can do to you?

Reply 21

AsAllTheWay

Or maybe its because intelligent people constitute the working class and need a little "excitement" to "remedy" their bleak predicament.

In which case, cheers to cirhosis! *clang*

Reply 22

Mittalmar

lawbot

The taste disgusts me. I have never tasted piss, but i imagine it would taste somewhat similar.

Beer= piss or to clarify Beer in Britain = piss

Reply 23

py0alb

lawbot

one word: ********.

Top of my class in school. Straight A's at A-Level and a distinction in my Law Degree.

I have drank no more than one pint of alcohol in my entire life.

The taste disgusts me. I have never tasted piss, but i imagine it would taste somewhat similar.

Not smart enough to have heard of anecdotal evidence though eh?

Reply 24

patientology

Maybe its because of the "higher intelligence- lower happyness" correlation.
Intelligent people are often unhappy individuals. "increased unhappyness- increased amount of alcohol consumed". Thats why my mother is an alcoholic.

Also thanks to the OP- now I have a brilliant subterfuge for my drinking habits.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 25

Melanie-v

lawbot

Beer is horrible. Cocktails or sambuca taste like bliss though. :wink:

Reply 26

Beska

Good bloke

I didn't, but now that I have I have a few more doubts about the study. For a start it doesn't seem to be controlled for age, which would probably very significant. I would love to know the size of a group that is controlled for such a huge range of variables, and I also wonder at the logic that determines that drinking alcohol is deemed to be evolutionarily novel in the 21st century. By the same token, smoking tobacco surely ought to be in the same category and intelligent people would smoke more. I doubt that is true.

There are a few holes in the methodology but I don't doubt the fact that there seems to be a tentative association between IQ and alcohol consumption. I doubt it's casual though.

Reply 27

bananaterracottapie

oh okay reread...it even said it was controlled for factors such as depression etc...

hmmm i have difficulties believing it, i mean surely it would have been very difficult to control factors such as age, income, social life,education, satisfaction with life etc aswell as differing iq levels.

i mean no offense but i cant see many thickos being in highly well paid jobs.

Reply 28

littleshambles

lawbot

you must be clever if you you've finally managed to find one counterexample disproving the existence of a general trend :pierre:

Reply 29

Fusilero

I would hypothesise the causation here is the opposite to what you're implying (drinking more increases intelligence) but rather that the more intelligent people drink more due to their constant ennui with a world that doesn't appreciate them. :pierre:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 30

Serentonin

patientology

I agree with this I think :yep:

Reply 31

thunder_chunky

Low Profile

that seems plausible.

I can't wait to see more on that.

Reply 32

perrytheplatypus

Intelligent people earn more money and so can spend more on alcohol?

It's a possibility :holmes:

Reply 33

Lizia

I'd agree with this. The most naturally intelligent people I know (ie the ones who get good grades with a minimum of work, not people who sit there for hours with text books) are also the heaviest drinkers. I think at most universities, the medics and the lawyers are generally the heaviest drinkers as well.

Reply 34

JGR

The vertical axis on that graph bothers me slightly.
The scaling/comparison method does not seem to be described in the article, from my skimming it.

Reply 35

littleshambles

according to the blog the study was controlled for both depression and income :fyi:

etc

Reply 36

chloboshoka

I always knew vodka was good for you.

Reply 37

halfoflessthan50p

That's quite interesting.

I'm sure its not causal but I can't easily think what it is if depression and income have been factored in.

Work hard; play hard is something you hear often. Perhaps its something to do with that kind of attitude of engagement that some (intelligent) people have.

lawbot

Top of my year in school. Straight As and a 1st in my Physics degree.

...AND I'm a raging alcoholic and chain smoker. So :eviltongue:

Just imagine what you could have achieved if you had a healthy drinking problem like the rest of us :biggrin:

Reply 38

Aglaya1992

If this is true then why aren't there more academics in Russia?

Reply 39

broadwayrachael

Hmm.. I like to think myself fairly intelligent and I have a glass of wine with my meal maybe once a month? But then again, like all psychological findings, you have to be aware of possible extraneous variables which would present such findings..