Why Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol

The article “Why Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol” was about why more intelligent people are more likely to binge drink and get drunk. Both studies done in the United States and the United Kingdom have shown that more intelligent (based on IQ) middle school students, high school students, college students, and adults on average drink nearly twice as much as those classified as very dull intelligence. 

This study was done with a number of controlled variables, including sex, race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, number of children, education, earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, frequency of socialization with friends, number of recent sex partners, childhood social class, mother’s education, and father’s education. Also, income and education, as well as childhood social class and parents’ education, were controlled, therefore, meaning that it is not because more intelligent people have higher-paying, more important jobs that require them to socialize and drink with their business associates that they drink more alcohol.

Instead, the article suggests that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in “evolutionarily novel behaviors” and since binge drinking and getting drunk is evolutionarily novel, more intelligent people are doing it. The fact that binge drinking and frequently getting drunk is detrimental to health has few, if any, influence on the study.

Do you believe that the statement "more intelligent people drink more alcohol" is actually true?

3 comments:

Marianna said...

I would disagree that smarter people drink more. the study was either very narrow or didn't consider other factors to the binge drinking. Logically, smarter people would be more open to the effects of drinking and the consequences. The over simplification that intelligent people get drunk more often contradicts the notion of intelligence, therefore is most likely improbable.

Anonymous said...

I would disagree that smarter people would drink more because I'm guessing smarter people would be educated enough to know what's right and what's wrong for you and the body. This research must have been very narrow or something

--Dan. Raza

Anonymous said...

People are really naive. Go to any University and see how much students drink. There's not such a thing as "inteligent people knows the consequence of drinking". Maybe they do, but they drink nevertheless. I belive this research ir right