A high IQ by itself does not bring respect in a group. As researchers from Norway found, people value intelligent individuals not for their intelligence itself, but for the benefit they bring to the collective. The results of the work were published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
The experiment involved 175 students from Norway, whose average age was about 23. First, each took a cognitive ability test - tasks on logic, pattern finding and spatial reasoning. Then the participants were split into pairs and given five minutes to solve one problem silently and independently of each other: how many hours members of a fictional tribe should spend gathering food before winter. More hours meant more food, but also more fatigue. They had to find the optimal balance.
After that, the partners took turns explaining their decisions to each other for one minute. Then they separately rated how intelligent their partner seemed to them, and how much he deserved respect, admiration and recognition as a leader.
It turned out that participants with higher intelligence test scores did better on the tribe problem. And those who proposed a better solution received more respect from their partner. At the same time, there was almost no direct link between the test result and status - it was fully explained by the quality of the task performed. In other words, intelligent people won favor not through the mere fact of intelligence, but through offering a plan useful to the group.
In addition, partners assessed each other's intelligence fairly accurately in just one minute of explanation. This suggests that people are able to recognize others' mental abilities from the way a person reasons.
The authors emphasize that this is a statistical association, not a proven causal relationship. The study was observational - scientists cannot experimentally change intelligence levels, so it cannot be ruled out that the ratings were influenced by other factors, such as confidence in the voice or charisma. Moreover, the participants were only Norwegian students, and the communication lasted only a couple of minutes, whereas in real life reputation is built over months and years.
Nevertheless, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that human intelligence evolved partly as a tool for gaining status through mental services useful to the group. However, the researchers emphasize, this is only a first test, and the evolution of the human mind has yet to be definitively explained.