3 preconceived ideas about HPI, according to psychiatrist Marine Collomb

Before reviewing prejudices about intelligent people, let’s take a look at the terminology used. HQI, or “people of high intelligence” meet Spearman’s (1904) definition of general intelligence. Accepted intelligence tests, such as the WAIS (for adults) or the WISC (for children) measure an IQ score following a Gaussian curve. The middle arbitrary score corresponds to 100. 50% of the population of the same age is distributed on each side above and below. The further away from 100, the higher or lower the level of intelligence compared to the rest of the population.

For the HQI, our score should be two standard deviations above 100 or 130, which corresponds to 2.2% of the population. The advantage of this mathematical definition of intelligence is that it can be easily measured and is not based on subjective personality criteria. Now that the foundation has been laid, let’s look at three clichés that still persist.

HQs are failing academically

Fake. Academic performance is related to IQ score. That is to say, the higher the IQ score, the higher the school grades. This score remains fairly stable over time and is found during the Certificate (on average, 2.6 points higher score out of 20) during graduation and upon entry into the Faculty.

It is possible that this stereotype about academic failure comes from the frequent underdiagnosis of autistic disorders and ADHD, sometimes associated with the HQI, in France.

HQI suffers from mental health disorders

Fake. Whether children or adults, mental disorders are not more prevalent in HQI than the rest of the population. They no longer suffer from insomnia, depression or even OCD.

Conversely, having an HQI will reduce the risk of becoming anxious and developing trauma.

Headquarters and social isolation

Fake. Another advantage, HQI will have better social integration and less feelings of loneliness than the rest of the population of the same age. So no more clichés of the isolated bookworm with his books, the people of HQI go out, people watch and have fun! To learn more, Marine Collomb recommends reading these scientific studies on the subject:

• Williams, C.M., Pere, H., Laborette, G., Fasaya, J., Guzmán García, A., Gauvruit, N., and Ramas, F. (2023).
• Davis and others stated that high intelligence has nothing to do with psychotic tendencies. (2018), a study of 300,486 individuals identified 148 independent genetic loci affecting general cognitive function, Nature Communications.