The upside of being a slob…

Tuesday, 11/22/23. More research on my favorite personality trait… conscientiousness!

Sometimes not having enough of a good thing… might be evidence that another good thing is in play!

For example, we now know that humans with high fluid intelligence think very quickly and see relationships between ideas.

These humans high in fluid intelligence may appear as laid back, disorganized, and even careless and sloppy — often tend to have higher IQs, according to research.

These traits are part of one of the five major aspects of personality called conscientiousness — or, in this particular case, an obvious lack of conscientiousness.

Being low on the personality trait of conscientiousness is linked to higher fluid intelligence… wow!

One of the reasons may be that a quick mind can make up for what a person lacks in discipline…

As a result, those humans with higher IQs can afford to be sloppy because they do not have to work as hard to achieve the same degree of success.

What is fluid intelligence? Fluid intelligence is one of two types of intelligence and refers, roughly speaking to the speed at which the brain works.

As the study’s authors elaborate:

“Fluid intelligence has been defined as our ‘on-the-spot’ reasoning ability, a skill not basically dependent on our experience…

It involves things like quick thinking, reasoning, seeing relationships between ideas, approaching new problems, and is considered to be biologically based.”

Fluid intelligence is in contrast to concrete intelligence, which refers to something akin general knowledge; the informational best practices and common sense that people have learned over their lifetime.

Fluid intelligence is a velocity and creative conductivity to your thinking… which is a clearly a gift, and not a skill… apparently, according to this study, the conscientious tend to be more modest, and consequently tend to acquire skills, as opposed to sloppy fluid thinkers. Thanks Mom!

How the study was conducted

The study included 201 adults of all ages who were given tests of both intelligence and personality.

The results showed that while crystallized intelligence was not linked to lacking conscientiousness, strangely enough, fluid intelligence was.

It makes sense to me that humans with higher fluid intelligence don’t have to work as hard, so they become more relaxed about the quality of their outcomes over the years.

The study’s authors explain:

“…in a competitive environment less intelligent individuals become more Conscientious in order to cope with their disadvantage, or that more intelligent individuals do not become so conscientious, as they can rely on their fluid intelligence to accomplish most tasks.”

Final thoughts…

As much as I respect and admire conscientious humans, I was always more of a fluid intelligence type.

I imagine that many humans reading about this research might experience a moment of relief. No, you don’t have to always be careful and conscientious.. You already got this!

Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.

RESEARCH:

Joanna Moutafi, Adrian Furnham, Laurence Paltiel, Why is Conscientiousness negatively correlated with intelligence?, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 37, Issue 5, 2004, Pages 1013-1022, ISSN 0191-8869, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2003.11.010 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886903004380)