People with higher intelligence are guided by these personal values
What are the values that guide your life? Although this is not a question that we ask ourselves so regularly, we may sometimes be led to wonder about what motivates us every day. Is this tradition? Creativity? Authenticity? Mutual aid? Tolerance?
“Core values serve as guiding principles that shape our attitudes, actions and decisions,” explains Jessica Koehler, a member of the psychology department at the University of Arizona. Psychology Today. They are deeply rooted, often unconscious and are an integral part of our identity. Values are not fixed traits: they are dynamic and can be shaped and reshaped over time through our experiences, our relationships and our thoughts. » If our values play a role in how others perceive us, they might say more about us.
Values, signs of intelligence?
In a new study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality ScienceJeromy Anglim and Andrew Marty wondered about the links between intelligence, personality and personal values. Through this research, the authors attempted to verify the hypothesis that many personal values are weakly associated with intelligence. In particular, both researchers expected that values related to conservatism, such as tradition, security, and conformity, would be negatively associated with intelligence. The opposite of autonomy.
To test their hypotheses, Jeromy Anglim and Andrew Marty recruited 15,522 participants aged 18 to 66. Participants completed assessments of personal values using social psychologist Shalom Schwartz’s revised 57-question values questionnaire. Their personality traits were analyzed using the HEXACO personality inventory. Their level of crystallized intelligence, linked to skills, knowledge and experience, and fluid intelligence, linked to logic and reasoning, were measured using in the Australian Council for Educational Research tests.
Values associated with intelligence
Results revealed that participants with higher general intelligence tended to place more importance to the values of autonomy, benevolence and universalism. Conversely, and as predicted in the researchers’ hypotheses, they were less likely to adhere to conservative values. On the other hand, contrary to the authors’ expectations, these associations were entirely due to crystallized intelligence. Only fluid intelligence was negatively related to security and tradition.
Regarding personality, only the dimension of openness to experience was associated with crystallized intelligence. This personality trait, one of the Big Five personality traits, includes curiosity, imagination, appreciation of art and new ideas, creativity, aesthetic sensitivity, and a preference for novelty and intellectual exploration.