Linda S. Gottfredson: "Factores intelectuales y longevidad"

"Linda S Gottfredson, University of Delaware (USA) General intelligence (g) in childhood and adolescence predicts modest but pervasive differences in adult morbidity and mortality. Why? I use data from sociology, psychology, medicine, and genetics to test two competing explanations: 1) Social privilege (higher income, education, social status) improves both g and access to good health. The IQ-health relation is spurious. 2) Higher g (more apt learning, reasoning, problem-solving) helps individuals to avoid preventable injury and illness and to adhere to treatment, especially when complex. The IQ-health relation is causal. The data are more consistent with the latter. Other human traits influence health, as they do performance in work and school. However, none appears to have such wide reach as g. Because g’s effects are uniquely consistent and pervasive, its effects grow stronger when cumulated over more events, hazards, persons, and time. That is why g can more fully account for class differences than individual differences in health."

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