"It poses the question to epidemiologists: why is it that intelligence is a predictor for things that seem so very far removed from the brain," says Rosalind Arden
SHOOT: Answer: Add time and you have a lot of permutations. Think of a virus. It has a flawed ability to reproduce itself. This flaw is also its best adaptation to mutate. In human beings the flaw is intelligence, manifest in a big brain. The big brain causes all sorts of problems (painful births, parenting response etc). So a simple 'flaw' can have some very unusual benefits and disadvantages, but if the benefits work (in spite of the disadvantage) they're perpetuated.
SHOOT: Answer: Add time and you have a lot of permutations. Think of a virus. It has a flawed ability to reproduce itself. This flaw is also its best adaptation to mutate. In human beings the flaw is intelligence, manifest in a big brain. The big brain causes all sorts of problems (painful births, parenting response etc). So a simple 'flaw' can have some very unusual benefits and disadvantages, but if the benefits work (in spite of the disadvantage) they're perpetuated.
This offers tantalising – yet preliminary – evidence that health and intelligence are the result of common genetic factors, and that low intelligence may be an indication of harmful genetic mutations. "You could say: 'look, brighter people make better health decisions – they give up smoking when they find it's bad for you, they take up exercise when they find out its good for you, and they eat a lot of salad'," Arden says.
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