Jordan Peterson - IQ accurate as predictor of success, but not of ethical behavior
Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 9 months ago to Science
Interesting video discussion of the accuracy IQ predicts success. Comments at the end are especially interesting regarding high IQ and ethical behavior. No correlation whatsoever between IQ and ethical behavior.
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My understanding is that IQ is an ability to "match patterns" and/or solve problems.
Ethical Behavior is VERY dependent on Culture. In some countries, it is ETHICAL to take advantage of someone. It is encouraged.
Is it Ethical to sell a 10 cent pill for $12,000? It depends... If it's YOUR pill, YOU get to choose what to sell it for! (Think about the Epi Pen Idiot,
and our corrupt government who got him on OTHER crimes! Which I find MORE unethical than what he did).
The challenge for us in this forum is that we (as a group) tend to believe in following rules, and are by USA standards pretty Ethical.
(And cognitive Bias allows for us to IGNORE when we aren't, or when we have cheated. I am proud to say that if I get too much change back, I make sure to give it back. I did NOT ALWAYS behave this way. It was unethical of me!)
Being able to solve problems and THINK AHEAD is a great skill. REALIZING that the world operates BETTER with Ethics, is a DIFFERENT Skill, and AKIN to Wisdom. KNOWING that not everyone is Ethical is key! (Trusting people tend to over trust. Unethical people pick up on this. They target those people as easy prey).
Keep in mind that our GOVERNMENT Prevents IQ testing from companies choosing employees. FORCING An Education System on us to do it for them. Unfortunately, like all Government programs, it degrades and is NO LONGER a predictor of IQ (ie, usefulness of an employee).
It's all related to what we value... Think about it this way. IQ gives you the ability to DELAY Gratification.
Ethics gives you the ability to RECOGNIZING if you are taking advantage of someone/something.
And Ethics can be thrown out the window in defiance... For example, if taxes are raised to 70%, is it Ethical to shut down your business and go claim unemployment benefits to help EXPEDITE the demise of the system? I think it is, and where I would normally NEVER be a looter (I have never collected unemployment in my life, despite being eligible at times, and having paid in...) I would CERTAINLY load up the truck at the point that the system needed to break!
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...
I am not a jordan peterson, but I bet the data is there somewhere for what I am saying.
As to IQ, its kind of obvious that smarter people are better able to compete in a general society than people who are not as smart. I think smartness has two elements- the first being genetic in terms of how the brain works and how fast it works, and the second being cultural in terms of an element of being taught to think early in life.
I am not sure how these two things compare to each other in importance, but in the end the smarter people get farther in life.
As to being ethical, I would say that the smarter people just have more ability to be ethical or unethical.
“A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.”
--Albert Einstein
Good judgement comes from living through the consequences of your poor decisions.
The key here, as far as I see it, is integration. Integration enables one to self introspect, all the facets of awareness are integrated, therefore one is most likely to have a strong conscience controlling their behavior; and that control system seems to be universal.
But to interject for a moment: This is why I surmise that IQ is mostly, (depending on the test), a measure of compartmentalized information, and what truly makes a person smart, a person with reason and wisdom, is integration. the ability to Integrate comes with having and using the Mind and once one has and uses his mind comes to know his conscience.
It comes with the territory in my observation.
One could have an IQ of 100 or even 120 and posses wisdom, ethics and...create value, if they can integrate information.