Intelligent people are more likely to trust others

New research from the University of Oxford in the UK suggests that intelligent individuals are more likely to trust other people, compared with those who are less brainy. For this study, the investigators analyzed data from the General Social Survey .The survey asks participants questions regarding their socioeconomic characteristics, behaviors and social attitudes.

The researchers note that data from the survey has been used in past research to assess generalized trust and intelligence, but this study is the first to use the data to determine the relationship between the two. As part of the survey, participants' intelligence levels are measured through a 10-word vocabulary test and an assessment that determines how well participants understood the survey questions. The researchers found that participants who scored highly on measures of intelligence were more likely to trust others, compared with those who had low scores on intelligence levels. This finding remained even after the team accounted for the participants' socioeconomic characteristics, including marital status, education and income.

Explaining potential reasons for this finding, the investigators say that smarter individuals are better judges of character, so they tend to develop relationships with people who are less likely to betray them. Intelligent people also tend to be better at weighing up situations, according to the researchers. Therefore, they are able to identify a strong incentive for the other party to stick to their side of an agreement.

This finding supports what other researchers have argued, namely that being a good judge of character is a distinct part of human intelligence which evolved through natural selection. However, there are other possible interpretations of the evidence, and further research is needed to disentangle them.