Social abilities and general intelligence may be controlled by the same regions of the brain, new research suggests
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Emotional smarts and general intelligence may be more closely linked than previously thought, new research suggests.
In a group of Vietnam veterans, IQ test results and emotional intelligence, or the ability to perceive, understand and deal with emotion in oneself or in others, were linked. And in brain scans, the same regions of the brain seemed to perform both emotional and cognitive tasks, the study found. The findings were published in the journal Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience.
"Intelligence, to a large extent, does depend on basic cognitive abilities, like attention and perception and memory and language," said study coauthor Aron Barbey, a neuroscientist at the University of Illinois, in a statement. "But it also depends on interacting with other people. We're fundamentally social beings and our understanding not only involves basic cognitive abilities but also involves productively applying those abilities to social situations so that we can navigate the social world and understand others."
In the past, scientists believed that emotional intelligence and general intelligence were distinct, and books and movies are rife with depictions of intellectually brilliant but socially clueless nerds.
But Barbey and his colleagues wondered whether emotional intelligence and IQ were more tightly coupled than previously thought. To find out, the team used emotional intelligence, and intelligence tests drawn from 152 Vietnam veterans.
Barbey's team found that as IQ test scores went up so did measures of social abilities.
Next, they studied brain scans from the veterans. Participants had suffered injuries in different parts of the brain, so the researchers created a map of the brain, then broke it into tiny sections. They then compared emotional and general intelligence test results between those with and without injuries for each individual section.
Those with brain injuries in the frontal cortex and the parietal cortex had impairments in both general and emotional intelligence. The frontal cortex plays a key role in regulating behavior, planning and memory, while the parietal cortex plays a role in understanding language.
The findings suggest that social savvy and general smarts are more tightly connected than previously thought.
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12 Comments
Add Commentinteresting - I've been told I have a high IQ, but I consistently fail with the EQ.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy partner may not be so high IQ, but is very high EQ.
Together we rock - but I'm not sure either of is high in both categories.
Necessary but not sufficient? The only thing they showed was that not being smart means you're less likely to be emotionally smart. There is no mention of how many smart people are NOT high in eq.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe report uses "emotional intelligence" and "social intelligence" interchangeably. Is that the understanding of the researchers? It seems to me that there are some forms of emotional intelligence, such as coping with loss or stress or with deferring gratification that are basically individual. I hope that the researchers were working with more precise definitions of "emotional intelligence" and "social intelligence" than are evident in this report.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you would like to watch the video created by the Beckman Institute that features this research, you can watch it on YouTube at...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2AXbFAtX2Y
This is comical, on some level. The human species has IQs advanced enough to put men on the moon, build grand and complex engineering structures as well as develop intricate electronics; we can video-talk in near real time with any other person on the planet; we can break the speed of sound whilst on the ground, in the air or on water; we developed penicillin, split the atom, came up with evolution; and all of this was achieved in spite of the heavy boot of religion driving Humanity back - ever backward - into the Dark Ages which, in some ways, we've never emerged from.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe have the IQs that afforded us the capacity to feed the globe three times over and yet two billion are starving; we have the capacity to bring safe drinking water and nutrition to every disadvantaged child on the planet (it would be to our advantage) and yet 30,000 children under the age of 5 die every single day; we have the capacity to rid the world of most remaining diseases in short order were it not for there being too much $ in treatment; we have the capacity to reconnect our disconnected Humanity but instead, the rich get richer hoarding whilst the poor die in their millions.
We have EQs so retarded we imagine insanity like revenge (and it's conservative twin, justice) to be sane; we imagine subscription to religious hatred to be sane; we imagine politeness to be sane and worst of all our insanities, we imagine lying to be sane.
Mothers lie to their children, for their sake. They're protected from knowledge, for their sake. States do the same thing with citizens, for the peoples' sake. We lie to each other for each others' sake. We breed children not to be happy but to be our slaves.
Girls who are honest about their biological coding get acid thrown in their face in many parts of the world (apparently being natural is immoral), and across the rest of the 'civilised' world girls are just sprayed with a virtual acid which burns and scars nearly as brutally.
Boys are conditioned to despise girls who are honest and respect girls who are deceitful and manipulative. The marketplace has been corrupted and girls imagine they're exploiting it, demanding to be treated Right and finding plenty of bidding action.
When the treating Right has waned, there are a billion mothers who Know Best. They raise their children with love and lies because that's all they know.
The researchers of this study cannot even distinguish between EQ and social skills.
We have the IQs to destroy OR save the world.
We have the EQs to make our self-destruction INEVITABLE.
Before we discuss 'Intelligence'. We need a definition.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI.Q. is a measure of the ability to learn relative to time.
Having a high I.Q. doesn't make you smart.
I have met a lot of highly intelligent idiots in my life.
How you use your ability to learn determines how smart you are.
Do you realize that your idea of feeding all of humanity is not just short sighted. It is ridiculous in the extreme and totally unsustainable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe world population has reached +- 7 billion. without feeding everybody.
In extension. Women who have the availability of contraception must be made aware that bringing other people into the world to suffer because of their selfish base desires. Is not a right. But an enormous responsibility for all the thoughts, feelings and actions of their offspring.
Women have the ultimate control and therefore the responsibility.
Your attributing responsibility and blame for overpopulation is utter nonsense. In most of the world, especially those populations with the greatest past and projected growth rates, women have very little control over their sexual and reproductive activities - it is men who have control over women's 'choices'. It is the demands of men's "base desires" that are imposed on women! Secondarily, it is religious policies that often influence population growth rates.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour attributing responsibility and blame for overpopulation is utter nonsense. In most of the world, especially those populations with the greatest past and projected growth rates, women have very little control over their sexual and reproductive activities - it is men who have control over women's 'choices'. It is the demands of men's "base desires" that are imposed on women! Secondarily, it is religious policies that often influence population growth rates.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe you meant "incredible". Incredulous means having a disbelief, while, incredible means beyond belief (as, I am incredulous at your pronouncements, they are not credible).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow I know how a friend could emotionally cope with two TBIs, cancer four times, the loss of a child, and a childabuse survivor. We all marvel at this person, but one thing we noticed, when things go wrong and we often struggle to deal with whatever it is, this person pulls back, stating once, "waiting for the universe to catch up."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think the rest of my comment supported my assertion that the generalized results were incredulous.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis study merely established that brain damage can affect both emotional intelligence and IQ. This may be important research for those suffering with brain injuries, but does nothing to establish a correlation between emotional intelligence and general intelligence in individuals without brain injury.