Bright, but allergic and neurotic? A critical investigation of the “overexcitable genius” hypothesis 2022, Fries et al

Introduction: Higher intelligence has been associated with improved health and longevity. However, recent findings have claimed that exceptional intelligence may come at a cost. Individuals at the upmost end of the intelligence distribution are reported to be disproportionately afflicted by a set of stress-related physical and mental health conditions: so-called overexcitabilities. Few accounts have investigated this issue and no studies are available for non-US samples yet. Here, we aimed to replicate and extend previous work by examining hitherto unaddressed overexcitabilities in a European high-IQ sample.

Methods: We carried out a preregistered survey among members of MENSA, the world’s largest high-IQ society. In total, 615 (307 male) members from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom participated.

Results and Discussion: Compared to the general population, our sample exhibited considerably elevated prevalences in autism spectrum disorders (risk ratio/RR = 2.25), chronic fatigue syndrome (RR = 5.69), depression (RR = 4.38), generalized anxiety (RR = 3.82), and irritable bowel syndrome (RR = 3.76). Contrary to previous accounts, neither asthma, allergies, nor autoimmune diseases were elevated. We show that this subsample of intellectually gifted persons faces specific health challenges compared to the general population. The reasons for this remain speculative, as we find little evidence for previously proposed immunological explanations. However, it is possible that the effects are caused by sample selectiveness (i.e., membership in a high-IQ society) rather than high IQ itself.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1051910/full

 

Yea, that's right, there's a block design subtest in the WAIS, where you have to arrange patterned blocks to reproduce a design. The puzzles progress from simple (four blocks) to complex. In the most recent version of the WAIS, there are also two other visual reasoning tasks.

But the WAIS also has a lot of verbal stuff, including vocabulary/general knowledge, arithmetic, digit span (repeat a series of numbers forwards and backwards). It also has a test that involves speed (converting between digits and symbols as rapidly as possible).

The whole IQ thing is so dodgy and questionable - its based more on tradition and precedent that any decent conception of how different cognitive capacities vary across individuals. They have tried to update the WAIS recently by incorporating some current ideas about human cognition (for example, introducing a working memory scale, which is about immediate problem solving, such as arithmetic ad repeating digits backwards), but its still fundamentally measuring the same vague 1920s concept of "smartness". Might be of some value as a predictor of other things, and to identify people that might need extra support, but because we don't really know what we're measuring, its not really that useful for understanding the basis of individual differences.

I don't know how you get a paper published that just looks at some hokey old folk psychology theory ("overexcitability") and shoves a bunch of questionnaires in the faces of mensa members. I guess Frontiers isn't very fussy.

 

The biggest confounder surely is "why someone wants to be in Mensa in the first place ?"

 

Obviously it's mixed and good that it genuinely helps young people, but as a study cohort the defining factor is the 'choice' to join, and whether nasty or nice it is a confound that has to be addressed for any study to be meaningful.

For a different perspective on Mensa: My Year in Mensa

 

Why does the title say "A critical investigation"? This seem like the exact opposite with the attempt to get a short section in trashy newspapers. The authors have even suggested a suitable title: "Bright, but allergic and neurotic?"

 

Marketing