The Intelligence Paradox: Why the Intelligent Choice Isn't Always the Smart One

218 Pages·2012·2.19 MB·English

by  Satoshi Kanazawa

Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
What Do People Want?
A Brief Word on the Data
Chapter 1: What Is Evolutionary Psychology?
Four Core Principles of Evolutionary Psychology
Two Logical Fallacies That We Must Avoid
Chapter 2: The Nature and Limitations of the Human
Brain
The Savanna Principle
Chapter 3: What Is Intelligence?
Common Misconceptions about Intelligence
How Did General Intelligence Evolve?
Cognitive Classes
Chapter 4: When Intelligence Matters (and When It
Doesn’t)
The Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis
From the Hypothesis to the Paradox: The Intelligence Paradox on
Individual Preferences and Values
Chapter 5: Why Liberals Are More Intelligent than
Conservatives
What Is Liberalism?
Are Liberals More Intelligent than Conservatives?
If Liberals Are More Intelligent than Conservatives, Why Are
Liberals So Stupid?
IQ and the Values of Nations
Chapter 6: Why Atheists Are More Intelligent than the
Religious
Where Does Religion Come From?
Is It Natural to Believe in God?
Societal Implications
Chapter 7: Why More Intelligent Men (but Not More
Intelligent Women) Value Sexual Exclusivity
Humans Are Naturally Polygynous, Not Monogamous
Are More Intelligent Men More Likely to Be Faithful?
Intelligence and Marriage Institutions
Chapter 8: Why Night Owls Are More Intelligent than
Morning Larks
Choice within Genetic Predisposition
Night Life Is Evolutionarily Novel
So Are Asians Really More Nocturnal than Others?
Chapter 9: Why Homosexuals Are More Intelligent than
Heterosexuals
What Does It Mean to Be Homosexual?
Evolutionary Novelty of Homosexual Identity and Behavior
Intelligence and Homosexuality
Chapter 10: Why More Intelligent People Like Classical
Music
Evolutionary Origins of Music
Intelligence and Tastes for Music
Evolutionary Novelty or Cognitive Complexity?
Chapter 11: Why Intelligent People Drink and Smoke
More
Brief Histories of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs
Intelligence and Substance Use
Intelligence and Criminality
Chapter 12: Why Intelligent People Are the Ultimate
Losers in Life
Reproduction Is the Ultimate Goal of All Living Organisms
Intelligence and the Value for Children
Intelligence and the Number of Children
Heritability of Fertility: An Evolutionary Puzzle
Possible Societal Consequences
Chapter 13: Other Possible Consequences of Intelligence
Coffee
Vegetarianism
Crime and Punishment
Representative Democracy
Conclusion: Intelligent People Are Not What You Think
References
Index

Copyright © 2012 by Satoshi Kanazawa. All rights reserved
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Kanazawa, Satoshi.
The intelligence paradox : why the intelligent choice isn't always the smart one /
Satoshi Kanazawa.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-58695-2 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-118-13764-2 (ebk);
ISBN 978-1-118-13765-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-13766-6 (ebk)
1. Intellect. 2. Evolutionary psychology. I. Title.
BF431.K366 2012
153.9—dc23
2011042289
For Kaja Perina,
who makes all great things happen in my career
Acknowledgments
I first became interested in the problem of values when I was a student of
Michael Hechter's at the University of Arizona. For my Ph.D. dissertation, I
pursued an old theoretical problem that Michael had been interested in for many
years, the Hobbesian problem of order (How is society possible among self-
interested rational actors?). However, by the time I became his student in 1989,
Michael was already beginning to move on to another project. He was trying to
figure out where values and preferences of human actors came from. Rational
choice theory can explain human behavior very well if it assumes what humans
want and desire, but it cannot explain these wants and desires themselves.
Michael, a leading rational choice theorist, wanted to advance the frontiers of
rational choice theory by figuring out where human values and preferences came
from, by providing a theoretical explanation for them. In technical language, he
was trying to endogenize values in rational choice models.
I was not involved in Michael's values project at all, but was aware of the
problem that he was struggling to solve. Even though Michael and I never
discussed these theoretical issues, I was able to follow the contours and
directions of his current thinking from the books and journal articles that he
asked me to fetch from the library. On my long walks back from the main
university library to the Social Sciences building, I would peruse the books and
articles he wanted to read next. Sometimes I kept them for a couple of hours so
that I could finish reading them before handing them to Michael.
Neither Michael nor I (nor anyone else) solved the problem of values, but the
importance of the problem stayed with me. Years later, when I discovered
evolutionary psychology by reading Robert Wright's The Moral Animal, I
immediately realized that evolutionary psychology provided the answer that
Michael had been searching for all these years. It could explain where human
values and preferences came from. This book is the result of the realization.
My first and foremost intellectual debt is therefore to Michael Hechter, who
unwittingly and unintentionally made me realize the importance of the problem
of values and set me on this intellectual path. But I'm not sure how happy he is
with the answer that I have found.
My intellectual life in London would be entirely barren but for a small group
of like-minded scientists in and around London with whom I can share our