Childhood general cognitive ability predicts leadership role occupancy across life: Evidence from 17,000 cohort study participants

Daly, Michael; Egan, Mark; O'Reilly, Fionnuala

doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.03.006

Cited by 31 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Likewise, Antonakis and colleagues (2017) detected an inverted-U shaped relationship between a leader's cognitive ability and leadership (according to ratings given by their subordinates) among a sample of n = 379 leaders. Yet, these effects were not found in other studies which used larger samples and objective measures of leadership (Daly et al, 2015;Reitan & Sternberg, 2019).…”

Section: Existing Literature On Nonlinear Effectsmentioning

confidence: 65%

Can You Ever Be Too Smart for Your Own Good? Comparing Linear and Nonlinear Effects of Cognitive Ability on Life Outcomes

Brown

Wai

Chabris

2021

Perspect Psychol Sci

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Despite a long-standing expert consensus about the importance of cognitive ability for life outcomes, contrary views continue to proliferate in scholarly and popular literature. This divergence of beliefs presents an obstacle for evidence-based policymaking and decision-making in a variety of settings. One commonly held idea is that greater cognitive ability does not matter or is actually harmful beyond a certain point (sometimes stated as > 100 or 120 IQ points). We empirically tested these notions using data from four longitudinal, representative cohort studies comprising 48,558 participants in the United States and United Kingdom from 1957 to the present. We found that ability measured in youth has a positive association with most occupational, educational, health, and social outcomes later in life. Most effects were characterized by a moderate to strong linear trend or a practically null effect (mean R2 range = .002–.256). Nearly all nonlinear effects were practically insignificant in magnitude (mean incremental R2 = .001) or were not replicated across cohorts or survey waves. We found no support for any downside to higher ability and no evidence for a threshold beyond which greater scores cease to be beneficial. Thus, greater cognitive ability is generally advantageous—and virtually never detrimental.

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Section: Existing Literature On Nonlinear Effectsmentioning

confidence: 65%

Can You Ever Be Too Smart for Your Own Good? Comparing Linear and Nonlinear Effects of Cognitive Ability on Life Outcomes

Brown

Wai

Chabris

2021

Perspect Psychol Sci

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“…The positive life outcomes associated with educational attainment extend far beyond wealth and professional success, to include physical and mental health, wellbeing and even longevity (Cutler & Lleras-Muney, 2012;Montez & Hayward, 2014). Similar long-term positive associations with health and wealth are observed for general cognitive ability: higher cognitive skills have been linked to higher earnings (Daly, Egan, & O'Reilly, 2015;Kalechstein, Newton, & van Gorp, 2003), better physical and mental health (Batty, Deary, & Zaninotto, 2016;Baune et al, 2010;Latvala, Kuja-Halkola, D'Onofrio, Larsson, & Lichtenstein, 2016;Mollon, David, Zammit, Lewis, & Reichenberg, 2018;Snyder, Miyake, & Hankin, 2015) and lower mortality (Deary, Weiss, & Batty, 2010). The shared positive life outcomes associated with cognitive ability and educational attainment are likely to be intrinsically linked via the strong connection between these two traits.…”

mentioning

confidence: 84%

Cognitive ability and education: How behavioural genetic research has advanced our knowledge and understanding of their association

Malanchini

Rimfeld

Allegrini

et al. 2020

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

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Cognitive ability and educational success predict positive outcomes across the lifespan, from higher earnings to better health and longevity. The shared positive outcomes associated with cognitive ability and education are emblematic of the strong interconnections between them. Part of the observed associations between cognitive ability and education, as well as their links with wealth, morbidity and mortality, are rooted in genetic variation.The current review evaluates the contribution of decades of behavioural genetic research to our knowledge and understanding of the biological and environmental basis of the association between cognitive ability and education. The evidence reviewed points to a strong genetic basis in their association, observed from middle childhood to old age, which is amplified by environmental experiences. In addition, the strong stability and heritability of educational success are not driven entirely by cognitive ability. This highlights the contribution of other educationally relevant noncognitive characteristics. Considering both cognitive and noncognitive skills as well as their biological and environmental underpinnings will be fundamental in moving towards a comprehensive, evidence-based model of education.

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“…General cognitive ability, often referred to as ‘general intelligence’, comprises a variety of correlated abilities including spatial and verbal abilities, information processing speed, and memory [ 1 , 2 ]. Childhood general cognitive ability is a well-studied area of research and can be used to predict social outcomes and perceived success [ 2 , 3 ]. As such, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that conditions that allow cognitive ability to flourish are vital to children’s lifelong success.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Meta-Analysis of Stressors from the Total Environment Associated with Children’s General Cognitive Ability

Nilsen

Ruiz

Tulve

2020

IJERPH

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General cognitive ability, often referred to as ‘general intelligence’, comprises a variety of correlated abilities. Childhood general cognitive ability is a well-studied area of research and can be used to predict social outcomes and perceived success. Early life stage (e.g., prenatal, postnatal, toddler) exposures to stressors (i.e., chemical and non-chemical stressors from the total (built, natural, social) environment) can impact the development of childhood cognitive ability. Building from our systematic scoping review (Ruiz et al., 2016), we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate more than 100 stressors related to cognitive development. Our meta-analysis identified 23 stressors with a significant increase in their likelihood to influence childhood cognitive ability by 10% or more, and 80 stressors were observed to have a statistically significant effect on cognitive ability. Stressors most impactful to cognition during the prenatal period were related to maternal health and the mother’s ability to access information relevant to a healthy pregnancy (e.g., diet, lifestyle). Stressors most impactful to cognition during the early childhood period were dietary nutrients (infancy), quality of social interaction (toddler), and exposure to toxic substances (throughout early childhood). In conducting this analysis, we examined the relative impact of real-world exposures on cognitive development to attempt to understand the inter-relationships between exposures to both chemical and non-chemical stressors and early developmental life stages. Our findings suggest that the stressors observed to be the most influential to childhood cognitive ability are not permanent and can be broadly categorized as activities/behaviors which can be modified to improve childhood cognition. This meta-analysis supports the idea that there are complex relationships between a child’s total environment and early cognitive development.

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Childhood general cognitive ability predicts leadership role occupancy across life: Evidence from 17,000 cohort study participants

Cited by 31 publications

References 78 publications

Can You Ever Be Too Smart for Your Own Good? Comparing Linear and Nonlinear Effects of Cognitive Ability on Life Outcomes

Can You Ever Be Too Smart for Your Own Good? Comparing Linear and Nonlinear Effects of Cognitive Ability on Life Outcomes

Cognitive ability and education: How behavioural genetic research has advanced our knowledge and understanding of their association

A Meta-Analysis of Stressors from the Total Environment Associated with Children’s General Cognitive Ability

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