According to a recent Oxford University study, smart people are more likely to trust others, compared to those with a lower score on intelligence tests. conducted in the United States every one or two years.
The authors explain that an explanation of their conclusion might be that smarter people are better able to analyze the character of others and therefore tend to establish relationships with people less likely to betray them.
- Another reason to justify may be that smarter people are better able to assess situations and recognize where there is a strong reason why the other person does not respect their part of the agreement.
The lead author of the study, Noah Carl, of the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford, said: “This shows that intelligence is linked to the act of trusting others, and then we must take into account factors such as marital status, education and this fact confirms what other researchers have already said, namely that good judgment of character is a distinct part of human intelligence , which was developed by natural selection. However, there are other possible interpretations of the evidence and more research is needed to verify that.
The study, published in the journal PloS ONE, supports previous research that analyzed data on trust and intelligence in European countries. The authors argue that research is fundamental because social trust contributes to the success of important social institutions, such as social and financial protection systems. In addition, research shows that people who trust others enjoy better health and happiness.
However, Oxford researchers found that the links between trust and health and between trust and happiness are not explained by science. For example, people who trust others have shown better health and happiness just because they are smarter. Discovery confirms that trust is a valuable resource for an individual and is not simply an indicator of intelligence.
Professor and researcher Francesco Billari, also from oxford University’s Department of Sociology, said that “people who trust others seem to show better health and happiness. Therefore, the study of social trust has broader implications for public health, government and private policies. charity, and there is good reason to believe that governments, religious groups, and other civic organizations should try to cultivate more trust in society. Has social trust become an increasingly important issue for academics, who want to understand it in more detail?